The Moscow Stock Exchange index managed to update the local maximum at the opening of trading yesterday, but an active decline began in the afternoon, as a result of which the indicator lost 1.1% of capitalization. The last time there was a stronger drawdown was on February 21 of this year, but it was bought out fairly quickly.
There were no reasons for active sales, oil was trading steadily, and positive news was received by many companies. So yesterday's decline can be explained by fixing "in fact" on a number of significant securities, as well as a general reduction in longs before the May holidays, which is quite reasonable in the current geopolitical conditions.
Of the important news on Tuesday, it is worth noting Severstal's unexpectedly strong report for the first quarter - revenue increased by 20% YoY to RUB 188.7 billion, EBITDA increased by 25% YoY to RUB 65.3 billion. At the same time, the Board of Directors recommended paying dividends for the first 3 months in the amount of 38.3 rubles. per share is about 2% of the dividend yield. The amount of dividends is not very interesting, but the fact that the issuer seems to have decided to return to the practice of paying them several times a year is important here. The paper is currently trading near a historical high.
The Supervisory Board of the Savings Bank recommended paying a handsome 33.3 rubles of dividends per share, which corresponds to a 10.8 percent dividend yield. The decision was expected, and the correction of the Savings Bank "in fact" has been quite common in the last year and a half. That's just how much the Savings Bank has fallen – by as much as 2.4%. The shares of the Savings Bank can continue to be held in portfolios. We do not exclude that this year the banking sector may become the leading sector of the Russian economy.
The MTS Board of Directors recommended paying 35 rubles per share last year (slightly more than 11% of the dividend yield). And there were no surprises here, but the paper sank by 2.8% yesterday. We do not exclude that the MTS dividend gap will be closed for a very long time, maybe many months. Therefore, it makes sense to look for a moment to exit the paper. Perhaps a good situation will present itself in the coming days if the IPO of MTS Bank is very successful.
The external background is moderately positive this morning – oil is growing by 0.2% and is trading around $88.5 per barrel, industrial metals are slightly rising in price.
The ruble continues to rise in price as the deadline for tax payments approaches. This morning, a unit of American currency costs 93 rubles. We do not exclude that in the last days of the week, when taxes will already be paid, the "Russian" will begin a slight decrease, as demand for the currency will increase as a hedging tool for transferring ruble positions through a long weekend.
Alexey Antonov, Head of Investment Consulting at ALOR BROKER
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