Russian Investor Statistics - Inflows Continue, First Signs of Saturation

The Moscow Exchange has published retail investor statistics for June. Local retail investors bought R29 bln ($400 mln) worth of Russian stocks over the month. This number looks quite average by the standards of last year and so far this year.> Inflows into mutual funds were also quite moderate in size, at R25 bln, of which R15 bln went into local equities, we estimate. So local inflows into equities totaled $600 mln. Corporates, meanwhile, sold $250 mln worth of stocks in two placements in June. These numbers suggest that the remaining $350 mln was sold by foreign investors.> The number of retail brokerage accounts continued to grow, but the growth started to decelerate, which may indicate early signs of saturation. Fewer than 500,000 new accounts were opened, the lowest number in a year. > Stock-level data suggests that retail investors continued to increase their exposure to Gazprom and Surgutneftegaz prefs while further reducing their investments in Lukoil. VTB and MMK entered the top 10, displacing Yandex and Severstal.