Crude oil and natural gas are two of the largest natural resource exports of Russia. As crude oil prices have plunged bt over 40% in the past few months Russia’s economy is adversely impacted.
The graphic below shows the importance of energy to the Russian economy:
Click to enlarge
Source: Euromonitor
Europe has an excellent conventional rail network.However not many people know that the continent also has an amazing high speed rail network that covers many of the major cities.
Today the fastest high speed train in operation is AGV Italo which has a top operational speed of 36o km/hr and broke a record speed of 574.8 km/hr during test run.
Click to enlarge
TGV Italo has been dubbed the “Italy’s Ferrari of Railways“. In 2012, a ticket cost as low as EUR 20 to travel from Rome to Naples on this beauty. The distance between the cities is 140 miles and the train covers it in little over an hour.
Additional high speed routes are planned in Europe as the map below shows:
Click to enlarge
Compared to Europe, the U.S. has no real high speed routes let alone a network. Amtrak has 28 miles of high speed track in rural Massachusetts and Rhode Island that allows 150 mi/hr or 240 km/hr. This is pathetic speed compared to the high speed train speeds in Europe and other parts of the world. The only high speed train currently in operation in the U.S. is Amtrak’s Acela Express. From Wikipedia:
The new service was named “Acela Express” and ran on the Northeast Corridor, linking Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. The service was inaugurated in December 2000, and was an immediate success, operated at a profit and as of 2012, it produced about 25% of Amtrak’s total service revenue. The Acela lacks a dedicated high-speed rail line which limit its average speed, although it reaches a maximum speed of 240 km/h (149 mph) on small sections of its route through Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The travel time between Washington and New York is 2 hours and 53 minutes (compared to 2 hours and 30 minutes for PRR‘s nonstop Metroliner in 1969), or an average speed of 79 mph (127 km/h). Schedule between New York and Boston is 3 hours 34 minutes, an average speed of only 63 mph (101 km/h). With a 15-minute layover in New York, the entire end-to-end trip averages 68 mph (110 km/h).
The map below shows the high speed rail network planned in North America:
Source: High speed around the world Maps, Paris, 1 November 2013, International Union of Railways
For more high-speed rail maps of Europe go here.
Here is a cool photo of China’s high-speed rails:
Click to enlarge
Source: Der Spiegel
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Source: Bonjour La France
Also checkout:
Latest Maps (as of 2018):
1.Europe
2.European Union
3.China
4.Germany
5.USA
6.Spain
7.Italy
8.Asia & Saudi Arabia
9.France
10.Japan
Source: UIC
In 2011, FT’s beyondbrics blog published an interesting chart showing the top five firms by market capitalization in BRIC countries and discussed about how a few large companies dominate the stock market in those markets. I am including that chart below in order to add some perspective to this post.
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Source: Chart of the week: Bric stock market concentration, Jan 4, 2011, FT beyondbrics
Since 2011 emerging markets have undergone substantial changes. The chart below shows the stock market capitalization of the largest five companies from Brazil, Russia, India and China:
Click to enlarge
Note: The combined markets of Shanghai and HongKong was used to select the Chinese firms shown above.
The top five firms are from China.Each of their market caps is much higher than other firms shown in the chart. Oil giant PetroChina(PTR) has a market cap of over $280.o billion.Three of the Chinese firms from the top five are banks. This shows the importance and growth of banking industry in China.
Compared to PetroChina, Russia’s Gazprom, Lukoil(LUKOY) and Rosneft have much smaller market caps. Gazprom(OGZPY) has a market cap of just $60.0 billion.As Russia is a resource-based economy, four of the five firms are in the oil and gas and mining industries.Another important point to consider is that Russian stocks always trade at a discount compared to other markets. In addition, the collapse of the ruble and the crash in crude oil prices have further damaged Russian companies.
Petrobras of Brazil had a market cap of about $400.0 billion in 2011. Now its market cap has plunged to just $52.0 billion. Corruption and political interference in the operations of this state-owned firm has crushed Petrobras(PBR) in the past few years with their shareholders suffering the most. Similar to China, the presence of two of the largest private-sector banks – Itau(ITUB) and Bradesco(BBD) – shows the importance of banks to the Brazilian economy.
Tata Consultancy Services tops all other Indian firms in terms of market cap. Valued at $76.0 billion the IT services provider highly benefits from the boom in offshoring of IT work by US, European and other companies.
Disclosure: Long BBD, ITUB, PBR
Foreign companies listed on the US markets may terminate their American Depository Receipts(DRs) for a variety of reasons including lack of liquidity, interest, costs, etc. This is different from a company moving their listing from an organized exchange such as the NYSE to OTC market. In such cases the ADR will continue to trade but just the ticker and the trading market will be different. For example, recently French firm Veolia Environnement moved from NYSE to the OTC market. The ticker changed from VE to VEOEY.
When a foreign company terminates its ADR program, then investors usually have two options: either they can cash in their holdings thru the depository in charge of the DR program or request the underlying shares so that the investor can continue to hold equity in the company. If the second option is available then the investor will end up owning the ordinary shares that trade on the domestic market of the foreign company. To illustrate this scenario, in October this year Israel Chemicals Limited that used to trade on the OTC market under the ticker ISCHY decided to terminate its DR program. ADR holders were given the two options mentioned above. The company trades on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker ICL.
As the year comes to an end some investors may find that their foreign stock is not trading any more on the US markets. There is no need to get worried. It may be possible that the foreign firm may have terminated its DR program. You can check the table below to see if the company terminated its ADR. If not, it is possible that the ticker may have changed.
The following is a list of foreign companies that terminated their DR programs in 2014:
| S.No. | Company | Ticker | Exchange | Country | Termination Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ChinaEdu | CEDU | NASDAQ | China | May 30, 2014 |
| 2 | Edwards | EVAC | NASDAQ | United Kingdom | Mar 17, 2014 |
| 3 | Gentium | GENT | NASDAQ | Italy | Apr 13, 2014 |
| 4 | AFP Provida | PVD | NYSE | Chile | Sep 19, 2014 |
| 5 | China Hydroelectric | CHC | NYSE | China | Aug 18, 2014 |
| 6 | Noah Education | NED | NYSE | China | Aug 29, 2014 |
| 7 | Simcere Pharmaceutical | SCR | NYSE | China | Feb 03, 2014 |
| 8 | Africa Israel Investments | AFIVY | OTC | Israel | Jun 04, 2014 |
| 9 | Algeta | ALGZY | OTC | Norway | Apr 01, 2014 |
| 10 | Amec | AMCBY | OTC | United Kingdom | Oct 01, 2014 |
| 11 | Antisoma | ATSMY | OTC | United Kingdom | Jul 31, 2014 |
| 12 | Asciano Limited | AANOY | OTC | Australia | Feb 09, 2014 |
| 13 | Ascot Mining | ATMGY | OTC | United Kingdom | May 05, 2014 |
| 14 | Auckland International Airport | ACDKY | OTC | New Zealand | Oct 14, 2014 |
| 15 | Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone | SEAUY | OTC | France | Apr 30, 2014 |
| 16 | AZ Electronic Materials | AZELY | OTC | Luxembourg | Aug 11, 2014 |
| 17 | Benitec Biopharma | BTCPY | OTC | Australia | May 29, 2014 |
| 18 | Berlian Laju Tanker | PBLJY | OTC | Indonesia | Mar 19, 2014 |
| 19 | Boulder Steel | BLSTY | OTC | Australia | Sep 22, 2014 |
| 20 | Cermaq | CRMQY | OTC | Norway | Dec 03, 2014 |
| 21 | Ciments Francais | CMSAY | OTC | France | Aug 22, 2014 |
| 22 | CSL | CMXHY | OTC | Australia | Jun 08, 2014 |
| 23 | David Jones | DJNTY | OTC | Australia | Sep 08, 2014 |
| 24 | Dixons Retail | DSITY | OTC | United Kingdom | Sep 26, 2014 |
| 25 | Dogan Yayin | DYYHY | OTC | Turkey | Sep 26, 2014 |
| 26 | eAccess | ECLTY | OTC | Japan | Mar 21, 2014 |
| 27 | Environmental Recycling Technologies | ERTEY | OTC | United Kingdom | Feb 10, 2014 |
| 28 | Essar Energy | ERERY | OTC | United Kingdom | Jun 17, 2014 |
| 29 | Fisher & Paykel Appliances | FPAHY | OTC | New Zealand | Mar 14, 2014 |
| 30 | Fook Woo | FOWUY | OTC | Hong Kong | Jan 23, 2014 |
| 31 | GUM (Torgovy Dom) | GUMRY | OTC | Russia | Dec 12, 2014 |
| 32 | Gunns | GNXLY | OTC | Australia | Mar 20, 2014 |
| 33 | Hampson Industries | HPIDY | OTC | United Kingdom | Mar 19, 2014 |
| 34 | Heritage Oil | HTGLY | OTC | Jersey | Dec 05, 2014 |
| 35 | IG Group | IGGRY | OTC | United Kingdom | Jan 12, 2014 |
| 36 | Inmuebles Carso | IBYNY | OTC | México | Dec 12, 2014 |
| 37 | Israel Chemicals | ISCHY | OTC | Israel | Oct 27, 2014 |
| 38 | IVG | IVGHY | OTC | Germany | Sep 08, 2014 |
| 39 | Kuzbassenergo | KZBGY | OTC | Russia | Oct 16, 2014 |
| 40 | Lonestar | ADUEY | OTC | Australia | Jun 20, 2014 |
| 41 | M.J. Maillis Industrial Packaging | MJMSY | OTC | Greece | Dec 17, 2014 |
| 42 | Marine Harvest | MNHVY | OTC | Norway | Jan 27, 2014 |
| 43 | Metal Storm | MTSXY | OTC | Australia | Oct 31, 2014 |
| 44 | Milano Assicurazioni | MLNOY | OTC | Italy | Feb 10, 2014 |
| 45 | Myer Holdings | MHOLY | OTC | Australia | Apr 07, 2014 |
| 46 | NZ Farming Systems Uruguay | NZFSY | OTC | New Zealand | Mar 03, 2014 |
| 47 | OAO OMZ | OMZOY | OTC | Russia | Mar 17, 2014 |
| 48 | Omega Pharma | OMGYY | OTC | Belgium | Mar 14, 2014 |
| 49 | Paranapanema | PNPPY | OTC | Brazil | Oct 06, 2014 |
| 50 | Personal & Informatik-P&I | PIPKY | OTC | Germany | Nov 26, 2014 |
| 51 | Probiomics | PRBMY | OTC | Australia | Nov 25, 2014 |
| 52 | Pronova BioPharma | PVNAY | OTC | Norway | Mar 14, 2014 |
| 53 | SC Global Developments | SGBDY | OTC | Singapore | Mar 21, 2014 |
| 54 | Singapore Land | SINPY | OTC | Singapore | Aug 01, 2014 |
| 55 | Staging Connections | STGFY | OTC | Australia | Apr 11, 2014 |
| 56 | Statoil Fuel & Retail | STOIY | OTC | Norway | Mar 19, 2014 |
| 57 | Stirol | SRLLY | OTC | Ukraine | Jul 03, 2014 |
| 58 | STX Europe | STXUY | OTC | Norway | Mar 19, 2014 |
| 59 | Swire Properties | SWPFY | OTC | Hong Kong | Sep 04, 2014 |
| 60 | Tap Oil | TAPOY | OTC | Australia | Oct 30, 2014 |
| 61 | Theme International | THIHY | OTC | Hong Kong | Feb 06, 2014 |
| 62 | ThyssenKrupp | TYEKY | OTC | Germany | Nov 18, 2014 |
| 63 | Tradehold | TDHDY | OTC | South Africa | May 12, 2014 |
| 64 | Transcom WorldWide - A Shares | TRCMY | OTC | Luxembourg | Dec 12, 2014 |
| 65 | Transcom WorldWide - B Shares | TRCXY | OTC | Luxembourg | Dec 12, 2014 |
| 66 | Travis Perkins | TVPKY | OTC | United Kingdom | May 19, 2014 |
| 67 | Wing Hang Bank | WGHGY | OTC | Hong Kong | Dec 05, 2014 |
| 68 | Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources | WIWTY | OTC | South Africa | Jun 02, 2014 |
| 69 | Gold One International | GLDZY | OTCQX | South Africa | Mar 19, 2014 |
Disclosure: Long VEOEY