By Marcus Williams in London
Russian stocks roared out of their winter holiday hibernation today, spurred by rising oil prices and China's demand for commodities.
The dollar-denominated RTS stock index soared 7.5% to 1,553 points,while the rouble-denominated MICEX bourse jumped 5.5% to 1,444 in the first day of Moscow trading after the 10-day New Year and Orthodox Christmas lay-off.
Market participants said the two exchanges surpassed gains registered by Russian GDR and ADR shares listed in London and New York during the holidays. "The Russian greyhound came out of the traps late but pinged past everyone else," said one Mosc0w-based trader. "It was a little surprising considering half of the brokerage desks are still on holiday."
The biggest movers of the day were energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, miner Norilsk Nickel, potash producer Uralkali and steel-maker Severstal.
Commodity prices responded to the news that China’s crude oil imports rose beyond 5 million barrels per day for the first time in December, up more than 20 per cent from the previous month
Russian markets staged a massive turnaround last year after an annus horribilis in 2008 when the global credit crisis, domestic investor scandals and a five-day war with Georgia, played havoc with domestic markets.
The MICEX closed the year out up 121.1 percent and the RTS climbed 128.62 percent to end year as the star index performer globally. A report issued today by Troika Dialog predicted the RTS would rise a further 38 percent this year.
Investors have increasingly piled more money into Russian-dedicated funds judging by inflows tracked by EPFR Global over the closing months of 2009.
A string of Russian fund start-ups are aiming to capitalise on an increased appetite by western investors for investing in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States by launching new vehicles in the coming months.
A leading Russian investor said global fund management players are beginning to raise their allocations to Russian equities following last year's outperformance. "The lemmings ran for the hills in late 2008 but are slowly dipping their toes back ," said the investor source.
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