Russian external debt was stronger yesterday. Spreads resumed their tightening in the absence of important news and against the background of a flat US Treasury market. The EMBI+ Russia Index added 0.5% with its spread tightening by 3 bp to 270. Corporate Eurobond spreads tightened by a solid 10-15 bp. In a separate story, S&P assigned a B+ rating to Gazprombank, Russia's third-largest bank, which is owned by gas monopoly Gazprom. Gazprombank is the most active borrower on the Eurobond market in its sector, having launched three Eurobond issues.
The highlights of Tuesday?s equity trading were a 7.3% surge for UES, on expectations of renewed demand for the shares as a privatisation bidding currency.....
The highlights of Tuesday?s equity trading were a 7.3% surge for UES, on expectations of renewed demand for the shares as a privatisation bidding currency, and a sharp 6.8% loss for MTS, whose 3Q results (very sound, in our view) revealed a pent-up profit-taking urge. Looking behind these excitements, we continue to see a well-supported market, with international volumes equalling the healthy domestic liquidity to produce overall turnover over $1 bn, while the benchmark RTS Index gained 0.9%. Perhaps the most significant feature of the day was the late buying in Yukos (+0.6%), as the market shrugged off the Tax Ministry?s reported assessment that the company had underpaid $5 bn of taxes since 1998.
Sibneft (+2.5%) continued to prosper given the continuing possibility of the Yukos deal failing. Another strong performer was Rostelecom (ords +4.4%, prefs +3.9%). Despite unevenness and volatility, the underlying positive trend is clear to see ? and we expect the recovery to continue in the run-up to next Sunday?s promising-looking Duma election.
Russian external debt was stronger yesterday. Spreads resumed their tightening in the absence of important news and against the background of a flat US Treasury market. The EMBI+ Russia Index added 0.5% with its spread tightening by 3 bp to 270. Corporate Eurobond spreads tightened by a solid 10-15 bp. In a separate story, S&P assigned a B+ rating to Gazprombank, Russia's third-largest bank, which is owned by gas monopoly Gazprom. Gazprombank is the most active borrower on the Eurobond market in its sector, having launched three Eurobond issues.
The GKO-OFZ market was mostly flat yesterday, although non-state rouble bonds continued to increase on the back of both the improved liquidity and the rouble's gains yesterday.
Russian external debt was stronger yesterday. Spreads resumed their tightening in the absence of important news and against the background of a flat US Treasury market. The EMBI+ Russia Index added 0.5% with its spread tightening by 3 bp to 270. Corporate Eurobond spreads tightened by a solid 10-15 bp. In a separate story, S&P assigned a B+ rating to Gazprombank, Russia's third-largest bank, which is owned by gas monopoly Gazprom. Gazprombank is the most active borrower on the Eurobond market in its sector, having launched three Eurobond issues.
