Capital inflow from funds investing in Russian stocks resumes - experts
MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Capital inflow from funds investing in Russian stocks resumed in the week of January 24 to 30, totaling $88 million, compared to $61 million in outflow the previous week, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR) data.
However, according to a report by investment company Uralsib Capital, inflows were only observed in traditional funds.
"More specifically, only one investment fund in Russia - a fund managed by BNP Paribas Investment Partners - was actually able to attract substantial funds; inflow was $115 million. We note that without the participation of this fund, the statistics for over 140 funds specializing in Russian assets for the last week would have demonstrated outflow of $27 million, which as a whole corresponds to the trend that has been observed throughout the entirety of Q4 2012 and the beginning of 2013. Nevertheless, the net result is that the past week proved to be the most successful for Russia since the end of September," the report said.
From the beginning of this year to January 30, total outflow from funds investing in Russian stocks was $66 million.
"This past week was fortunate for the Russian stock market, although it must be noted that this is the merit of just one fund. Investors did not share their optimism with other funds. A similar glimpse of light in the statistics for movement of investment fund resources was observed in August of last year, when, thanks to the same manager, Russian funds overall demonstrated a good cash inflow. They were unable, however, to continue in the same spirit. Accordingly, in our view, it would now be premature to talk about a reversal of the trend in relation to Russia, since inflow into global funds, which we note has declined to its lowest level since the beginning of the year, is still determining the dynamic," Uralsib Capital wrote.