Russia – Will The Bear Come In From The Cold?

Since January many emerging equity and bond markets have staged a spectacular recovery. Russia has been among the winners, buoyed by hopes of an end to international sanctions and a, relative, rapprochement with the new US administration. A near-virtuous circle is achieved when combined with the country’s strengthening trade relationship with China and the rising oil price, stemming from the first OPEC production agreement in eight years.

Looking at the RTSI Index, a lot of this favourable news is already in the price:

Source: Moscow Exchange

Since January the RTSI has rallied by 78% and, at 1082 is close to the highs of May 2015 (1092) from whence it broke down to the lows of January (607). Is it too late to join the party? A longer-term chart lends perspective:

Source: Tradingview

By a number of other metrics Russian stocks still look inexpensive. The chart below compares stock market capitalisation to GDP:

Source: Guru Focus

The current ratio is 20%, the average over the period since 2000 is 65% – return to mean would imply a 19.25% annual return for Russian stocks over the next eight years. That would equate to a compound return of 409%.

The table below shows the P/E Ratios of four Russian ETFs as of 8^th December:

Symbol

Name

P/E Ratio

RSXJ

VanEck Vectors Russia Small-Cap ETF

6.07

ERUS

iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF

7.33

RBL

SPDR S&P Russia ETF

7.72

RSX

VanEck Vectors Russia ETF

8.73

Source: EFTdb.com

For comparison, the iShares MSCI BRIC ETF (BKF) currently trades on a PE of 10 times.

Bonds, Inflation and the Ruble

Russian inflation has been declining rapidly this year as the sharp devaluation of 2014/2015 feeds through. The two charts below shows the USDRUB (black – RHS) and Russian CPI (blue – LHS) and Russian 10 year Government bonds (blue – LHS) versus CPI (black – RHS):

Source: Trading Economics

Source: Trading Economics

Whilst the Ruble has stabilised at a structurally higher level than prior to the annexation of the Crimea, the inflation rate has been brought back under control by the hawkish endeavours of the Central Bank of Russia. The benchmark one-week repo rate remains at 10%, down from 17% in December 2014 but still well above the rate of inflation – which the Central Bank of Russia forecast to fall to 4% by the end of next year. The yield curve remains inverted but that has not always been a structural feature of the Russian market. The chart below compares the one week repo rate (black – RHS) versus 10yr Government bonds (blue – LHS):

Source: Trading Economics

Economics and Politics

The IMF WEO – October 2016 revised its GDP forecast for Russia in 2017 to +1.1% (versus +0.1% in July) although they revised their 2016 estimate to -0.8% from +0.4%. Focus Economics poll of analysts, forecast 1.2%, whilst Fathom Consulting’s Global Economic Strategic asset Allocation Model (GESAM) is predicting +0.8. Between 1996 and 2016 the average rate of GDP growth was 3.08%. As the chart below shows, the growth rate has been volatile and, like many countries globally, the post 2008/2009 period has been more subdued: