Financial Markets in May 2013

Abstract

The growth of the MICEX Index over the course of May, briefly interrupted by its small incursion into negative territory in mid-May, was caused by the rise in oil futures prices and the inflow of foreign portfolio investments. However, it was not sufficient to reverse the downward trend in the stock market’s capitalization. The most noteworthy events in Russia’s stock market were Sberbank’s shares climbing to their historic high of Rb 110.74 per share and VTB’s secondary public offering, which pushed down the prices of its shares. On the whole, the key indices of the Russian domestic corporate bond market, including the market volume and the market index, the weighted average effective yield on corporate bonds, and the activity of the market’s biggest bond emitters in registering their new issues, showed a positive trend. The emitters were punctually fulfilling their obligations to their bond holders.

Keywords: Financial markets

JEL Classification: G1, G3, G15