Daily Market Monitor: We don’t believe foreign investors are likely to start increasing their rouble bond positions soon

The rouble bond market remained uncertain on Thursday, as the
negative influence from growing global interest rates and rouble
weakening against the dollar were finally outweighed by significant
purchases from large local players. However, we don’t believe foreign
investors are likely to start increasing their rouble bond positions soon
— which would leave a lot of risk in long-term first-tier bonds. Shorterduration
bonds with higher yields look like the more defensive option
in the current conditions.

The Russian Eurobond market saw little change on Thursday in the
absence of significant news either from benchmarks or the local
market, although U.S. economic releases (jobless statistics and durable
goods orders) were slightly weaker than expectations. In the meantime
we do not expect anything significant on Friday, particularly due to the
holiday on western markets.