Russian Investor Statistics - A $600 mln Inflow in July

The Moscow Exchange has published retail investor statistics for July. Inflows from retail investors continued at more or less the same pace as in previous months. In net terms, they bought R34 bln ($460 mln) worth of Russian stocks. > Mutual funds saw inflows of R22 bln, of which R11 bln went into local equities, according to our calculations. This brings total local inflows into Russian stocks to R45 bln ($600 mln). As usual, these numbers allow us to roughly estimate the supply-demand balance in the market. In July, there was one IPO in the market, in which $500 mln in stock was issued. This implies that foreigners were generally sellers, offloading some $100 mln worth of Russian equities.> Meanwhile, the brokerage market continues to show signs of nearing saturation. The number of individuals with brokerage accounts climbed above 13 mln in July; however, the pace of growth slowed again, as only 446,000 new clients opened accounts in July, the lowest number in a year.Stock-level data suggests that retail investors continued to increase their exposure to Gazprom and cut exposure to Nornickel. VTB fell out of the top 10 most held stocks, pushed out by Severstal. The share of Surgutneftegaz prefs fell after the stock went ex-div.