Equity Stock Market

The MOEX increased 151 points or 4.59% since the beginning of 2021, according to trading on a
contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Russia.
• → The first group is oil and gas companies, transportation and financials. These were hit
the most: natural gas due to structural problems of the European market, oil through a
dramatic collapse of end demand, transportation due to the travel ban and virus
lockdown, and financials through an expected hike in nonperforming loans. The group
was down roughly 40-45% for the quarter
• → The second group is mostly comprised of domestic stocks – electric utilities,
telecommunication companies and food retailers. These companies were affected by
the ruble devaluation, but their underlying businesses haven’t seen a large impact on
either volumes or prices. In fact, telecom usage is actually up in double-digits compared
to the same time a year ago. These stocks were down roughly 30% for the quarter, just
slightly more than 23% in the currency
• → The third group is non-energy exporting companies – ferrous and non-ferrous
metallurgy, fertilisers, gold miners and diamond producers. For most of the cases, the
price for their output wasn’t down nearly as much as for oil, but the dollar value of their
expenses (both operating and capex) has fallen with the ruble. Some of these companies
may even show a year-on-year growth in profits. This group is down only 10% for the
1Q20 on average but, as you can see from the chart on the next page, the difference in
performance is wide depending on the type of commodity