Russian Eurobonds post moderate gains in week
MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Most Russian Eurobonds posted moderate gains in the past week as appetite for risk picked up.
US Treasuries also rose in price, as a result of which sovereign spreads were little changed.
The week got off to a poor start amid a general emerging markets sell-off, but Russian bonds stabilized on Tuesday. They started to climb on Wednesday, with stronger demand for risk assets and higher oil prices to back them up, and continued rising on Thursday, trading sideways on Friday as the buying subsided and amid a dearth of fresh growth drivers.
Russia's benchmark 2030 bond rose 0.12% in price in the week to 121.31%. Spread between these and four-year UST narrowed 3 basis points to 132 bps.
The 2043 bond grew 1.18%. The 2042 bond was up 1.12% - spread between these and UST with the same maturity narrowed 5 bps to 292 bps; the 2026 bond rose 0.65% in price; the 2023 bond gained 0.25%, with spread narrowing 2 bps to 210 bps; 2020 fell 0.07% and 2018 was down 0.05%.
Little change is in store for the Russian Eurobond market in the week to come amid mixed signals from the world capital markets, including oil, the Interfax Center for Economic Analysis said.
The bond market could be affected by the general nervousness about monetary policy of the world's central banks, particularly the U.S. Federal Reserve, and come under pressure from the uncertainty over the process of Britain's exit from the European Union and how this affects the financial markets in general, however still-high oil prices, with Brent crude expected to carry on trading at $50-$53 a barrel, will buoy the Russian market.