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JRS Jpmorgan Russian Securities Plc

83.00
0.00 (0.00%)
28 Mar 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Jpmorgan Russian Securities Plc LSE:JRS London Ordinary Share GB0032164732 ORD 1P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.00% 83.00 82.00 84.00 - 0.00 00:00:00
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
0 0 N/A 0

Jpmorgan Russian Securit... Share Discussion Threads

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DateSubjectAuthorDiscuss
27/2/2017
10:31
More things to see in St Petersburg.....

Pulkovo Observatory:

One hour from the city is the almost-futuristic world of the semi-abandoned scientific observatory at Pulkovo Hills. From time to time steel refractors and radio telescopes burst into view, disrupting the serene landscape and inspiring a sense of awe. On the grounds are several Stalin-era residential houses decorated with Zodiac signs, and Zhiguli cars dotted around – the area seemingly stuck in the past. A shimmering light pink underpass leads to the observatory when leaving the bus at Pulkovo Highway. It’s the perfect place for watching the planes taking off at Pulkovo airport while enjoying the strange, eerie allure of the abandoned observatory.


Udelka: the flea market with everything:

Everybody in St Petersburg owns something from Udelka, the city’s main flea market and one of the most authentic in the country. Part of the site is now taken up by indoor shops selling Turkish wares, but further down the railway tracks the old-fashioned Udelka lives on, with its precious trinkets from Leningrad living rooms, some of the greatest outfits and accessories from the days of the USSR, leftfield costumes and ridiculous T-shirts from the 90s, ragdolls dangling from strings, vintage leather suitcases and wing mirrors for Zhigulis – classic Soviet-era cars.

• 39 Fermskoye Highway, Udelnaya station

loganair
22/2/2017
09:50
mrs tubs - That is Bills high end estimate.

Putin has access to upto 58 planes, however he doesn´t own most of them.

From the Russian´s I know they say they reckon Putin is worth between $2bln and $7bln.

Most people on the Forbes rich list are worth far more than Forbes say as Forbes only takes what is offically publically out there, while many if not all these people have plenty of their wealth unoffically stashed away and hidden from public view.

loganair
22/2/2017
09:43
The first 20 tons or there abouts of the Central banks gold buying is buying from domestic producers as local domsstic gold production is sold to the governement and not on the open market while much of the rest will have been bought via the Shanghai metal/gold exchange and purchased in Chinese Yuan.

Russia sells much of it´s gas to China in Yuan, then uses this Yuan to buy gold.

China also doesn´t sell its domestically produced gold, most of the gold sold on the Shanghai exchange comes from the West, especially via Switzerland and from countries such as Australia.

loganair
21/2/2017
09:49
Is Putin the world's real richest man? After 17 years in power, Russian leader has a '$200 billion fortune, 58 planes and helicopters and 20 palaces and country retreats'
During his two decades in power, Putin's net worth has been widely speculated
One of the most quoted guesses of the 64-year-old's net worth is Political analyst Stanslav Belkovsky's 2007 estimation of $40billion
But Bill Browder, author and a former fund manager in Russia, has said the president could be worth upwards of $200billion
It was revealed last year that Putin could have access to up to 58 planes and helicopters, a $500,000 watch collection and 20 palaces and country retreats
Microsoft's Bill Gates has been named the richest man in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of $75billion
By Kelly Mclaughlin For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 16:27, 20 February 2017 | UPDATED: 18:42, 20 February 2017


Read more:

mrs tubs
21/2/2017
09:48
Is Putin the world's real richest man? After 17 years in power, Russian leader has a '$200 billion fortune, 58 planes and helicopters and 20 palaces and country retreats'
During his two decades in power, Putin's net worth has been widely speculated
One of the most quoted guesses of the 64-year-old's net worth is Political analyst Stanslav Belkovsky's 2007 estimation of $40billion
But Bill Browder, author and a former fund manager in Russia, has said the president could be worth upwards of $200billion
It was revealed last year that Putin could have access to up to 58 planes and helicopters, a $500,000 watch collection and 20 palaces and country retreats
Microsoft's Bill Gates has been named the richest man in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of $75billion
By Kelly Mclaughlin For Mailonline
PUBLISHED: 16:27, 20 February 2017 | UPDATED: 18:42, 20 February 2017


Read more:

mrs tubs
20/2/2017
11:11
Moody’s Investors Service has changed the outlook on Russia’s Ba1 government bond rating to stable from negative, affirming the rating and citing economic recovery.

"The main driver for changing the outlook on Russia's Ba1 government bond rating to stable from negative is the government's enactment of a medium-term fiscal consolidation strategy that is expected both to lower the government's dependence on oil and gas revenues and to permit the gradual replenishment of its savings buffers. In addition, the Russian economy is now recovering after a nearly two-year-long recession," Moody’s said on Friday.

loganair
20/2/2017
10:23
Traders in the United States are betting the Russian ruble rally will continue, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Over the last 12 months, the ruble has strengthened over 25 percent against the dollar, the best performance among global currencies. On Monday, the Russian currency was trading near 20-month highs below 58 rubles against the dollar and 61.7 against the euro. The rally is continuing despite the Central Bank of Russia buying dollars in February to replenish reserves.

"The ruble would have strengthened sharply without these operations, but it can become a threat to economic stability," said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.

The Russian budget heavily relies on oil revenues and needs a balance between oil prices and the exchange rate of the ruble. A strong ruble not backed by relative crude prices would make a hole in the Russian budget.

According to Andrey Kostin, the head of Russia's second-biggest bank VTB, the ruble has a potential to increase by a further 10 percent in value this year to 52-53 against the dollar, if the Central Bank doesn’t limit the surge.

The ruble may strengthen to 50 against the dollar if there is good geopolitical environment, said Vasily Yakimkin, an economist at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

loganair
17/2/2017
10:25
Talks Between Lavrov, Tillerson Hint at US-Russia 'Thaw':

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a meeting in Bonn, Germany.

Unofficial sources said that both the Russian and American sides put high hopes on the meeting in Bonn because it was expected to shed some light on the intentions of the new US presidential administration.

Sources also suggested that during the talks the Russian and US top diplomats may arrange the conditions for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump.

According to Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy think-tank the meeting was also important because Moscow and Washington had a chance to outline the entire bilateral agenda.

"The sides needed to make clear the fields for cooperation and articulate differences and tensions. This was the goal. No one should expect any breakthrough results from such a meeting," the expert pointed out.

Suslov suggested that the main point the two ministers might have discussed is resumption of practical US-Russia ties.

"De facto such a thaw has already begun. The first sign is a meeting between Russian and US military chiefs [on February 16, in Baku, Azerbaijan]. But it should be continued. If Lavrov and Tillerson discussed this issue then it would mean their talks were positive," he said.

The expert added that currently there are several areas in which Moscow and Washington could work together, including the fight against terrorism, the settlement of the Syrian conflict and the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

As for the Minsk agreement, according to Suslov, the Trump administration is unlikely to make any concessions to Russia in the near future because the White House is "under constant pressure over its alleged ties to Russia."

loganair
16/2/2017
10:29
The business confidence in Russia has reached the highest level since 2011, the economic development minister said.

The Russian Economic Development Ministry expects the country's economy to grow some two percent this year as the recovery begins to affect the broader population, ministry head Maxim Oreshkin said Wednesday.

"In the start of 2017 the situation is also quote positive… In 2017 we expect growth to be broader, expanding into the consumer sector. We expect incomes to recover, there will be a positive tendency. We expect growth of some two percent in 2017," Oreshkin said.

So far, rail freight and the electricity sectors are showing the best growth figures, the minister added, noting that business confidence had reached the highest levels in over five years.

"Rail freight increased around nine percent year-on-year, this is a very high increase, it indicates that economic activity is recovering. Looking at business surveys, the figures are showing that the level of confidence is at its highest since 2011," Oreshkin said, adding that the recovery has so far only impacted a limited number of sectors, including agriculture and chemicals.

Russia is emerging from a two-year recession that began amid collapsing commodity prices, including oil, as well as the Western sanctions. In 2016, Russia's economy is estimated to have contracted by 0.5 percent after contracting almost four percent the previous year. The first three quarters saw negative growth rates before a slight GDP increase in the fourth quarter. The Economic Development Ministry's 2017 baseline scenario forecast is a GDP increase of 0.6 percent.

loganair
16/2/2017
10:10
Looks like the discount is back at -15%, which is usually a buy signal with JRS.
galeforce1
16/2/2017
09:53
Blackrock´s Gerardo Rodriguez:

Russia’s economic recovery, expectations of monetary easing and low equity valuations have prompted BlackRock to be overweight the country’s stocks. Rodriguez favors the consumer-discretionary, telecoms and materials sectors and has below-benchmark holdings of energy shares, betting that the oil-price recovery has mostly run its course.

He is underweight Russian bonds as BlackRock prefers markets with more stable interest rates and expects equities to be the main beneficiaries of the nation’s economic rebound.

“Possible sanctions relief is certainly a factor that makes us more comfortable with our long position in equities,” he said. “However, it’s not something we’d use as the main driver of our position in Russia, because there’s a lack of clarity of the policy framework in the U.S. Russia has been able to come back quite strongly after a difficult period.”

loganair
15/2/2017
08:43
It is interesting that the Russian Central Bank have decided to keep interest rates higher for longer which in turn means a strengthening rouble allowing the Central Bank to continue and even increase its purchasing into its foreign reserves.
loganair
13/2/2017
11:48
Strong indicators.

Some significant percentage increases there month-on-month.

QP

quepassa
13/2/2017
11:23
Foreign Exchange Reserves in Russia increased to $390.585 Billion in January from $377.741 Billion in December of 2016.

Russia Foreign Exchange Reserves are forecast to go up to $395.214bln in February 2017 and $399.943bln in March.

At the height of the Russian crisis in April 2015 FX reserves fell to a low of $350.5bln. Still a long way to go to reach the January 2013 high of $537.4bln.

The reserves are made up of gold, currency, bonds denominated in foreign currencies and special drawing rights.


Russian trade surplus increased to $11.83 billion in December 2016, well above market expectations of a $9.85 billion surplus.

loganair
13/2/2017
11:06
Oil and surging commodities' prices will underpin the strongly improving Russian economy.
The warming of relations with USA will further rehabilitate.

All looking good.

ALL IMO. DYOR.
QP

quepassa
13/2/2017
10:53
The Russian currency continues its upward surge, trading below 58 rubles against the dollar for the first time since June 2015. This is despite the Central Bank of Russia purchasing dollars to replenish reserves, which often leads to ruble depreciation.

At the opening bell on the Moscow Exchange, the ruble was trading at 57.96 against the dollar and 61.8 against the euro, which is the best for the Russian currency since July 2015.

The ruble has been the world's best-performing currency in the last 12 months, clawing back over 26 percent against the dollar.

The Central Bank will be purchasing dollars each day until March 6 to replenish Russia’s foreign reserves while oil prices are well above the planned $40 per barrel at $55-56.

loganair
13/2/2017
10:23
Acceleration of Russian economy’s growth to the world’s level is feasible but requires maximized efforts, the Bank of Russia said on Friday.

"The historical average economic growth rates in other countries during first five years of reaching the GDP level comparable with the Russian one was 3.4%, speaking of feasibility of the task to speed up economic growth in Russia. However, solution of the task will require large-scale reforms, dramatic transformation and improvement of business conditions and the investment climate," the regulator said.

Financial recovery of Russian banking sector may take several years — Central Bank
It was reported earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin tasked the Russian government in December 2016 to develop the plan for acceleration of the economic growth by 2025.

The Bank of Russia believes additional risks may appear on the way of delivering the inflation target [4%] by the end of this year.

"The decline in expectations of financial analysts regarding the price hike at 2017 year-end evidences continuing growth of confidence in the anti-inflation policy of the Bank of Russia. Nevertheless, inflation pressure is still high. Trend inflation declines at a moderate pace. Additional risks may appear against reaching the inflation target by 2017 year-end in conditions of higher inflation expectations as temporary advantage factors are exhausted and the economy secures a footing on the growth path," the Central Bank said.

loganair
13/2/2017
10:18
Russian Gold By Caitlin Long:

Grant Williams pieced together some of the same things I did in my Russia piece which you ran last April, about why the Russians are buying gold (when economists are advising them to sell it) and why Russia’s balance sheet is in great shape compared to those of Western nations. The ruble’s recovery still confounds the mainstream! But Grant takes the analysis a step further to show that oil may be trading in gold terms again, tying its price action to the proposed Shanghai crude oil futures contract (which has been delayed) and the Shanghai gold market. When that oil futures contract goes live, basically the countries that have been cut out of the USD-based financial system by sanctions will be able to sell oil for gold in Shanghai. This will be a very big deal, and few mainstream economists will understand why! No one knows the timing, of course, but it’s certainly worth watching because it’s an important piece of the geopolitical and financial puzzle.

The story begins in the 1970s when Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon struck a deal with the House of Saud — a deal which gave birth to the petrodollar system.

The terms were simple The Saudis agreed to ONLY accept U.S. Dollars in return for their oil and that they would reinvest their surplus dollars into U.S. treasuries.

In return, the U.S. would provide arms and a security guarantee to the Saudis who, it has to be said, were living in a pretty rough neighbourhood. As you can see, things went swimmingly.

Saudi purchases of treasuries grew along with the oil price and everyone was happy.

The inverse correlation between the dollar and crude is just about as perfect as one could expect (until recently that is… but again, we’ll be back to that).

And, as you can see here, beginning when Nixon slammed the gold window shut on French fingers and picking up speed once the petrodollar system was ensconced, foreign buyers of U.S. debt grew exponentially.

Having the world’s most vital commodity exclusively priced in U.S. dollars meant everybody needed to hold large dollar reserves to pay for it and that meant a yuuuge bid for treasuries. It’s good to be the king.

By 2015, as the chart on the next page shows quite clearly, there were treasuries to the value of around 6 years of total global oil supply in the hands of foreigners (if we assume a constant 97 million bpd supply which I think is a pretty reasonable estimate).

Now… with that brief background on the petrodollar system, here’s where I need you to stick with me. I promise you it’ll be worth the mental effort

Ready? Here we go.

Now, back in 2010, then-World Bank President Robert Zoellick caused something of a commotion when he suggested that an entirely new global monetary system maybe wasn’t such a bad idea.

The system he had in mind involved a freely-convertible Yuan and, controversially was constructed around gold as its central reference point.

In seemingly unrelated news, two years later, Iran began accepting Yuan in payment for its oil amid US sanctions. The transactions were conducted through Russian banks.

The crucial part of this deal was that, by diversifying their purchases in this way, the Chinese had found a path towards not only needing to hold fewer U.S. dollar reserves, but to circumventing the petrodollar system altogether.

By 2013, the penny had clearly dropped at the PBoC who declared an end to the era of their accumulation of U.S. treasuries.

Yes, it was, apparently “no longer in China’s interest” to accumulate foreign exchange reserves.

Sure enough, in 2014, global FX reserves began to decline at the fastest rate in 80 years.

That same year, another piece of the puzzle was laid in place when Xu Luode, the Chairman of the newly-founded Shanghai Gold Exchange, explained that gold would be priced and sold in Yuan as a step towards what he called the “internationalization of the renminbi” (for those of you confused by Yuan and Renminbi, just think of them as the Chinese equivalent of ‘Pound’ and ‘Sterling̵7;.

We can but hope he is correct. When that day comes, the change on the world’s gold markets will be unprecedented.

In 2015, another announcement slipped by the world when it was revealed that Russia’s Gazprom would also begin selling oil to the Chinese in exchange for yuan and that they were negotiating further agreements to use rubles and yuan to settle natural gas trading directly, without the need for dollars.

So… here we are, in 2016 and, as it turned out, April was a hell of a month if you were paying attention.

Firstly, the Saudis threatened to sell almost a trillion dollars of U.S. assets—including over $300 billion of treasury bonds—should a bill be passed by the congress allowing the Saudis to be held responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the bill was subsequently passed before being vetoed by President Obama who then had to watch in ignominy as he suffered the first veto override of his presidency.

Just days later, the Saudis were the cause of a seemingly surprise failure by OPEC to agree a production cut as the oil price languished in the low-$30s.

Just 48 hours after that surprise, the Chinese finally launched their twice daily gold fixing, setting the price at 256.92 yuan per gram.

As Soc Gen’s Robin Bhar correctly identified, if the ability to trade gold for yuan exists within a closed monetary system, its importance will be limited BUT, as Bloomberg’s Ken Hoffman also correctly pointed out, if this was the thin end of the wedge, things could get very interesting indeed.

Between 1865 and 1973, the price of oil was incredibly stable against a backdrop of perhaps the greatest simultaneous economic, demographic and technological expansion in human history.

How was that possible?

Well simply put, because oil was effectively priced in gold.

However…

Once the gold window closed and the petrodollar system was implemented, the price of oil soared 50-fold in just 35 years.

It’s safe to say that, relative to even oil, and without any infrastructure spending by Donald Trump, treasuries are going to be…. abundant in the coming years.

Conversely, if we look at the value of gold relative to foreign-held treasuries, we see an altogether different story unfold.

During Reagan’s presidency, US treasuries were backed 132% by the market value of the country’s gold reserves.

Today, that number has fallen to just 4.7%

If we do the same thing and account for the $100 trillion in entitlement promises the number falls to 0.3% in 2025.

Yes, the Chinese have started to do what they promised to start doing, when they promised to start doing it.

Chinese sales of US treasuries have been consistent for the last three years…

…as have their sales of US securities since 2015 after plateauing in 2013 when treasury divestiture began Concurrently, Chinese sales of corporate bonds have accelerated over the same period…

…though agency sales —despite a few periods of consistent selling—have yet to follow suit.

But now, as tensions rise and the cross-currents get harder to discern, guess who else has showed up as a seller?

That’s right, the Saudis are now steady sellers of US treasuries…

…and even more aggressive sellers of U.S. securities…

Meanwhile, taking a broader view, net foreign purchases of treasuries, according to the TIC data, have been in a clear downtrend since 2009 and have been largely outflows for the last three years.

If we look at the 12-month sum of sales, we see an even sharper decline…


Meanwhile, the Russians—who, as we’ve seen are now selling oil for yuan to the Chinese, remember?— have been picking up the pace of their accumulation of gold reserves yet again, with the most recent monthly data setting yet another record…

…and the pick up in pace is evident when we look at average monthly purchases prior to 2013 and post the agreements put in place around that time between the various parties. It is crucial to understand because a look at the market value of Russia’s gold reserves shows just how crucial their ongoing accumulation of bullion has been for the country’s finances over the last two years…

…and that increase in value has cushioned the effects of, amongst other things, the bailing out of the ruble.

Russia’s gold reserves in Ruble terms have soared as the country’s currency has weakened—something which confounded all the doommongers who called Game Over for Russia amidst sharply declining oil revenues.

Now, crucially, being given the ability to sell oil to the Chinese for yuan and buy gold with that same yuan directly through the Shanghai Exchange has completely changed the game for the Russians and those changes are being reflected where they matter most—in the energy markets, the supply/ demand dynamics of which are quietly morphing in plain sight.

By August of 2016, Russia had overtaken Saudi Arabia as the largest exporter of oil into China…


Now, I hope you’re all still with me because here’s where we get to the final piece of this glorious puzzle—the piece that ties all these seemingly unrelated threads together: China’s own crude oil futures contract, to be priced in Yuan and traded at the Shanghai International Energy Exchange—a yuan contract which will be made fully convertible.

This contract has been postponed several times— ostensibly for reasons such as stock market volatility in China, but perhaps there is more going on behind the scenes that is causing the delay because, once this contract is in place, things change.

Dramatically:

In the interim, China has supplanted the U.S to become the world’s biggest importer of oil, which serves to increase both its importance in the oil markets and the likelihood of it launching its own yuan-denominated contract at some point in time.

So, the world’s largest exporter of oil Russia, is now dealing with the largest importer China directly in yuan and it has the ability to convert those yuan proceeds into physical gold through the Shanghai exchange— which the data suggest it is doing as fast as possible.

Currently, the bilateral oil for gold trade is only available to what the U.S. would no doubt consider a ‘basket of deplorables’ in Iran and Russia…but just think what happens once that fully convertible oil contract is up and running…?

Suddenly, the availability to price oil in gold is available to everybody and, given rising Saudi/U.S. tensions and the Middle East nation’s recent rededication to providing “political and strategic support” to China it’s easy to see why this would be attractive to the Saudis, for example.

Whatever happens, opening that contract creates a market-wide arbitrage opportunity which affords anybody with oil to sell the ability to exchange said oil for gold and anybody wanting oil to acquire it cheaply by buying cheap gold in the West and shipping it to Shanghai or HK where it can be sold for yuan.

Already, places like Tokyo, Seoul and Dubai are opening physical gold markets and discussing linking their nascent markets for bullion to the Shanghai exchange which has rapidly become the largest physical delivery market in the world.

Now, were this arbitrage to begin happening in any meaningful size, with the market for oil far bigger than that for gold, it would immediately be evident in the ratio between the two commodities…

…which, interestingly, is precisely what has happened since the peak of global reserves in 2014 and the Sino-Russian agreement to essentially transact oil for gold. With those conditions in place, the gold/oil ratio has broken out to its highest level in 80 years.

The recent move in the oil price looks to me suspiciously like a sign that a move has started to return to pricing oil in gold.

That move, if indeed it is happening beneath the surface, allied with the endless possibilities enabled by the potential full convertibility of the yuan under the Shanghai-based oil contract leaves oil producing nations with a rather obvious choice for the first time in almost half a century.

If you are an oil producing country, do you…:

MINIMIZE your production in order to MAXIMIZE your holdings of one of the most abundant and easily-produced commodities in the world—U.S. treasuries—as has been the case for the last 40 years… knowing full well that, with the level of entitlements due in the next decade, more will need to be printed like crazy?

Or……

Do you MAXIMIZE production in order to gain the largest possible market share in the biggest oil market in the world and, through the ability to buy gold for yuan, thereby maximize your reserves of a scarce, physical commodity which is impossible to produce from thin air and which happens to be not only the most undervalued asset on the planet, but is trading at its most undervalued relative to U.S. treasuries in living memory?

With an annual production of $170bn, gold is by far the largest metal market by value.

However, that figure is dwarfed by the oil market which is 10x the size of the gold market on an annual production basis.

If we throw in the average annual foreign holdings of U.S. treasuries over the last 2 years, we see that the ‘other’ commodity is at a different magnitude altogether.

So, which one of these commodities has any scarcity value? Given the choice, which one would you seek to maximize your holdings of?

U.S. treasuries which can be conjured out of thin air by the U.S. government and which, are described thus by The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Or how about oil? Which the Saudis, for example, can simply print pull out of the ground at will at a cost of a little under $10/barrel?

Or gold? A commodity which is limited in availability, trading at its all-time low relative to U.S. treasury supply and is not only getting harder and more expensive to produce, but which is also catching the eye not only of the central banks of the world’s two largest producers, but of the largest importer and largest exporter of oil?

loganair
10/2/2017
09:41
Global oil price growth leading up to an agreement among two dozen oil producing countries to cut production created a budget windfall in Russia of $25.4 billion.

OPEC's agreement to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day, a daily cartel-wide cap of 32.5 million barrels, went into effect in January 2017.

Eleven non-OPEC countries, including Russia, joined OPEC and agreed to cut oil output by 558,000 barrels per day. Russia's share of the production cut totals 300,000 barrels per day.

Oil prices are unlikely to reach $100 per barrel in the foreseeable future, instead fluctuating at $50-60 per barrel this year, Russian Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Vladimir Voronkov said.

loganair
10/2/2017
09:25
Finnair adds capacity to St Petersburg:

As of April 23, Finnair will add six weekly frequencies between Helsinki and St Petersburg, bringing the weekly connections to 20 flights. The new flights connect smoothly into Finnair’s broad European network of over 70 destinations, allowing customer to connect via Helsinki to Europe in the morning, and returning from Europe in the evening. The new connection is operated with ATR aircraft.

“These new flights support even better connections for the increased number of travelers between St Petersburg and the US via Helsinki, and also offer our Russian customers full improved connectivity to our European and Asian services”, says Juha Jarvinen, Finnair’s Chief Commercial Officer. “Next summer we open our new San Francisco route, and winter 2017/2018 will see the introduction of Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and Havanna in Cuba into our network, and these additions support also those connections.”

loganair
09/2/2017
09:08
Consulting agency PricewaterhoiseCoopers (PwC) has published a report entitled "The long view: how will the global economic order change by 2050?" In the report, experts predict the state of affairs in economies of different countries of the world.

The consulting agency said that capital outflow was not threatening Russia. The floating ruble rate, recovering oil prices and attractive rates on Finance Ministry bonds will help the Russian economy develop.

There is account surplus in Russia, which means that the country does not depend on the inflow of foreign capital. Slowly but surely, oil prices recover from their collapse, which also creates additional advantages for Russia. Oil appears as Russia's source of income and foreign currency at the same time, PwC analysts said.

The PwC study concluded that Russia and Thailand are two countries with the lowest risk of capital outflow.

While these projections are based on current assumptions, and subject to unforeseen headwinds and tailwinds, John Hawksworth, chief economist for PwC, said there's every reason to believe the rise of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), ongoing for decades, will continue apace. He foresees Russia's economy overtaking Germany in size by 2030, for instance.

"Russia has great people strengths, with a well educated, entrepreneurial population highly skilled in new technologies. It's a matter of diversification away from natural resources, towards emergent tech. Russia should capitalize on those key assets, and make the country an attractive place for top talent from China and India to establish themselves in," said Mr. Hawksworth.

A the end of last year, President Putin instructed the government to adopt an action plan to ensure Russia's economic growth should outstrip world indicators in four years.

The action plan is to embrace a period of time from 2017 till 2025. It should include measures to improve the business climate in the country, the capacity of non-commodity exports, the development of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as measures to improve the efficiency of state-run industries.

loganair
08/2/2017
09:34
Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has named the Kremlin the biggest threat to healthy competition in the Russian economy.

The agency is now asking President Vladimir Putin to sign a presidential decree reducing the state's role in key economic sectors over the next two years, the Vedomosti newspaper reported Wednesday.

The decree would force state and municipal companies to reduce their market share and ban them from acquiring new assets, either directly or through subsidiaries.

A separate FAS bill also sets forward a potential ban on the creation of unitary enterprises in competitive markets.

The state has rapidly increased its presence in the economy over the past decade, according to FAS data. State-owned companies controlled some 70 percent of the country's GDP in 2015, compared to 35 percent in 2005. The number of state and municipal unitary enterprises has tripled in the last three years alone, posing a particular threat to businesses on the regional level.

loganair
02/2/2017
10:44
Russia key for long-term investors By Colin Croft at Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities fund:

It can't be repeated too often that investing should be a long-term game. If investors are putting money aside for 10-20 years, short-term fluctuations in share prices should really be seen as distractions. It is the long-term trends that matter most.

In my view the key is to have a well-diversified portfolio and to favour investments that are both cheap and under-owned.

I believe that Emerging Europe still ticks both of those boxes. Let's not forget that 2016 was the first good year for the region after an extended five-year rough patch in which it completely fell off the radar screen for many investors.

It might seem difficult to understand how this could happen, when you consider that emerging Europe has a larger population than western Europe, and a larger economy than Germany, but this is often the case with good investment opportunities: they are hiding in plain sight even as the majority of investors herd around whatever type of asset happens to be fashionable at the time.

Outlook for 2017

The outlook for Russia in particular (a 58% weighting in the Jupiter Emerging European Opportunities Fund at the end of December), has improved significantly compared to last year - the oil price has rebounded from unsustainably low levels of under $30 per barrel and is currently trading at around $55 per barrel, a level that should be comfortable for Russia and is well above the $40 per barrel assumption that is baked into the Russian budget.

If, in 2017, oil prices simply remain in the $50-$55 range that we have seen since the recent OPEC decision, that would represent a 10% to 22% increase compared to 2016's average price of $45.

This should provide good conditions for the economy to return to growth - which could create stock picking opportunities in domestic-facing companies that have suffered from weak earnings momentum in recent years.

It's too early to tell whether the hopes for US-Russia détente and potential easing of sanctions under president Trump will materialise, but it is worth noting that most US presidents, including Obama, have tended to spend the early part of their presidency attempting to fix US-Russia relations - and this particular president has so far been far more positive in his public statements about Russia than any of his predecessors.

To conclude, on most measures of valuation emerging Europe's markets still look attractive in my view: the Russian market for example has a price/earnings (PE) ratio of 7, which is in line with its 10-year average. That is half that of the FTSE All-Share Index, which currently trades on a PE of 14.6 and is around 20% more expensive than its 10-year average.

To conclude, the structural case for investing in emerging Europe remains as strong as ever, in my view, with regional economies still set to grow faster than those in the West due to lower levels of debt and a competitive cost base.

loganair
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