Russia-Ukraine Conflict Dominates Markets
4/3 18:01
As the eyes of the world focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine, markets have plenty to react to. Not only have sanctions impacted investors in Russian companies, but also those companies and countries that share borders with Russia or are significant buyers of Russian energy. Many ETFs that track Russian equities have suspended creations and redemptions as sanctions make it impossible to execute trades, and liquidity is vanishing from the market. However, the VanEck Russia ETF which only suspended creations on Thursday witnessed $46 million of inflows as opportunistic investors hope to profit from the fire-sale prices of Russian stocks.
Russia-Focused ETFs Get Crushed by Sanctions
- iShares MSCI Russia ETF (ERUS), -99.7%, $0 flows (creations suspended)
- Franklin FTSE Russia ETF (FLRU), -97.5%, $0 flows (creations suspended)
- VanEck Vectors Russia ETF (RSX), -91.8%, $46.7 million of inflows (creations suspended Thursday)
Infection of Neighbors and Major Russian Energy Consumers
- iShares MSCI Austria Capped ETF (ISVK), -11.4%, $2 million inflows
- iShares MSCI Finland Capped ETF (EFNL), -9.5%, $6.1 million of inflows
- iShares MSCI Germany ETF (ISVP), -8.9%, -$35 million of outflows
- Franklin...