Moscow Exchange is in a positive mood – Kommersant FM

The Moscow Exchange Index has updated its two-year high. It recovered the February fall and broke through 3,295.38 points for the first time since February 2022. Although this is still below the levels before the outbreak of hostilities. Analysts expect further growth to at least 3300.

What factors have an impact? “Kommersant FM” discussed this with Anna Kokoreva, a stock market expert at “BCS World of Investments”: “The market has stabilized, the sanctions turned out to be not as terrible and frightening as investors expected, and it actually won back its losses and was already preparing for a breakthrough. Additional support is provided by the strengthening of the ruble and reporting season. In general, they report well, some even very well.

Plus, shareholder meetings are slowly beginning to be held, where decisions on dividends are announced, which also has a positive effect on the Russian market. And there is also a big positive impact after the speech of the president, who did not ignore the stock market and said that it would be good to double capitalization by 2030.

But I would not say that this growth is sustainable. We need to see how trading goes before the end of the week, whether we will be able to gain a foothold at the level of 3300 points on the Moscow Exchange index. But investors are very positive. Firstly, we saw that, under the conditions of sanctions restrictions, Russian companies continue to generate profits, and they are ready to share them with investors. These are the main triggers that, in the long term, inspire positivity in Russian investors and push the Moscow Exchange index upward.”

There is also a serious restraining factor in the stock market – the policy of the Central Bank. It will limit further growth of the index, Daniil Bolotskikh, leading analyst at Digital Broker, is sure: “After the Bank of Russia revised the forecast for the average key rate in February, there are not many positive factors left for the market to continue to grow. We see that the index has come close to the resistance level – 3300 points. Overcoming this milestone will be quite problematic for a simple reason – the same Central Bank forecast for setting the key rate in 2024. Our ceiling was 3300 points, and from there we expected the market to go into a correction. But, judging by the dynamics, perhaps the growth will continue somewhat higher, and then we will return to the correction.”

At the end of last month, Moscow Exchange published financial statements for 2023. The site’s net profit increased by 67.5% to RUB 60.5 billion. World markets are also growing: the Japanese Nikkei 225 stock index rose above 40 thousand points for the first time in history. At the same time, the country’s economy does not keep up with it: Japan fell out of the top three in terms of GDP, giving way to Germany.

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