January 24, 2022
Another collapse of the Russian market
RTSI and IMOEX indices fell to their lowest since December 2020

The growth of geopolitical risks around Ukraine again caused the collapse of the Russian market. On Monday morning, Russian stocks showed a sharp decline.

For the first time since December 2020, the IMOEX index fell below 3200 points, to 3182.37 points (-7.46%), while the RTSI index lost almost 10%, falling below 1300 points, to 1270.97 points (-9.34%).

The leaders of the decline are stocks of OZON (-13.1%), Yandex (-11.6%), VTB (-9.4%), AFK Sistema (-9.2%), Gazprom (-8.6 %), ALROSA (-8.5%), TCS Group (-8.3%), UC Rusal (-8%), Sberbank (-7%) and NOVATEK (-6.9%).

The dollar exchange rate for the first time in a long time exceeded the mark of 78 rubles, rising to 79 rubles. The euro exchange rate at its peak was ₽89.33 (+1.35%).

“The situation on the Russian market is developing very rapidly, changing both up and down. Having opened quite positively in the morning, later we saw a gap of -10% on the market collapse. You need to understand that professional investors in this case are buying up the market, and physicists are being cut off their credits. There was a fairly large number of investors on the stock exchange, standing with a large leverage up on many shares, but at the moment they have been carried out of the market quite strongly.

A repeat of this situation is possible, but in general, when the market declines like this, it means a very good time and a sure sign to buy depreciated securities. We remind you that the dividends from the shares did not go away, just as the value from the shares did not go away. The cash flow to the country, and hence to oil and gas companies, as well as banks, is very high, so the marginality of the business will increase. Turnovers on the stock exchange are high, which means that the MICEX will also benefit from this whole situation.

Based on this, we recommend investors not to panic and monitor the situation. Already now there is an opportunity to buy some Russian securities much cheaper, with a discount of up to 50% or more compared to the prices of November-December last year, which were relevant for just a month. Therefore, the current situation should be assessed more as an opportunity than as something terrible,” commented Andrey Syrchin, CEO of CRESCO Capital Ltd.