Little Victory of Russian Stock Market

The recent decline on the American stock market came as a shock to many investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor's 500 Index fell two percent, hitting a six-week low. Index levels on the U.S. stock markets were now approximately the same as they had been after the September 11 terror attacks.

However, the Russian market does not react so sharply to bad news from overseas as it did before. This means that market is becoming less sensitive to negative external factors while retaining its high degree of sensitivity to positive news.

So, U.S. stock market situation has had no drastic effect on the Russian market. The Russian market has by no means suffered a slump. It has only shown negative dynamics.

Apart from bad news from the U.S., purely domestic factors have also affected the Russian market in some way. For instance, many portfolio investors are uncertain whether or not national electric utility Unified Energy Systems will be restructured. This uncertainty, combined with the turmoil on overseas markets, caused the stock of the largest natural monopoly to slide. Uncertainty is currently the dominant mood on the Russian market.

There is no doubt, however, that without positive signals from the United States market growth in Russia would have been impossible in any case. Bear moods on the American market are expected to last until early 2003. The same appears to hold true for Russia.