“But a deal over Ukraine is unlikely to happen any time soon. The war in Ukraine is a unique feature of this crisis. Stabilisation of oil prices would also be unambiguously positive. But this is difficult to predict and in any event there are better risk/reward ways of positioning for a rebound in oil.”
Anna Stupnytska, global economist at Fidelity, said Russia was heavily reliant on the direction of the oil price but pointed out sanctions as a result of the Ukraine conflict, weak institutions and corruption “all aggravate the situation”.
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“Capital outflows are set to continue, and the economy is definitely going deeper into recession,” she said.
“The question is, how far can it fall?”
HSBC did not respond by the time of publication.
| How UK-domiciled Russia funds have fared in 2014 | |
| Fund | Performance (%) |
| Baring Russia | -53.1 |
| HSBC GIF Russia | -44.6 |
| JPMorgan Russia | -45.5 |
| Neptune Russia & Greater Russia | -50.9 |
| Data: FE Analytics. Figures to December 17. |
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