Russian bond sales have raised more than $1 billion from foreign investors since the beginning of the year, Kommersant writes citing reports by Bank of America and BCS Global Markets.
According to the reports based on Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR) data, four Russian issuers have already placed $1.6 billion worth of Eurobonds in 2020. The Finance Ministry has placed 145 billion rubles ($2.3 billion) worth of ruble-denominated OFZ federal bonds.
Last week, an unknown buyer purchased 58 billion rubles (US$932 million) worth of ruble-denominated sovereign debt, which, according to the ministry, was one of the largest fulfilled bids in history.
“Onlookers are debating who the mystery buyer is. Consensus says it’s a domestic financial institution—otherwise the ruble-dollar rate would’ve moved, yet it barely reacted,” BMB Russia reports.
In the week ending January 22, Russian assets saw $420 million of inflows from combined equity and bond fund flows compared with $470 million the preceding week.
“While markets were welcoming the year-end Santa rally and January EM (Emerging Markets) optimism, the Coronavirus fears with potential impact on China, the dominant EM, may have already seriously damaged sentiment in the last few days – much depends on further developments,” BCS Global Markets said.
