Financial Markets in February 2015

Abstract

Over the course of February 2015, the MICEX Index continued to grow and hit its four-year record high of 1,809.6 points. The stock market’s capitalization index as of 25 February amounted to Rb 27.4 trillion (or 38.6% of GDP). As before, the situation in Russia’s domestic corporate bond market was unfavorable – mostly due to the effects of adverse external factors. The main negative feature of that market continued to be the high rate of weighted average effective yield on corporate bond issues, although it displayed a moderate downward trend (especially in the hi-tech sector). On the whole, the key indices of the Russian domestic corporate bond market, including the market volume and the market index, and the activity of the market’s biggest bond emitters and investors, showed a positive trend. The emitters were becoming less punctual in fulfilling their obligations to their bond holders.