Russian forces fired missiles at several Ukrainian cities and landed troops on its southern coast on Thursday, officials and media reported, after President Vladimir Putin authorized a “special” military operation in the east. Shortly after Putin spoke in a televised speech on Russian state television, explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, before dawn.
The markets are reacting abruptly. And the highlight could be the unpredictability of the situation, given that Russia itself would be the first in which this did not happen, its stock market is collapsing, points out Victoria Torre, from Singular Bank. And what analysts expected is that this would be resolved through diplomatic channels. “We still do not lose hope that this is the case,” says the expert.
But, for now, what we are seeing is the reaction of the markets, in both directions, both on the downside and on the upside: setbacks for equities, while we see increases for raw materials and, especially, for oil. Brent futures rise more than 5.5% and are already close to 100 dollars a barrel.
In this scenario, how to protect the portfolios?
“Many times, panic is the worst adviser for investors,” says Torre. As she explains, as long as we have a well-constructed portfolio with a long-term outlook, we must be prudent when making decisions.
A good example is the ups and downs we have seen in recent sessions and how we have finally ended up in an undesirable scenario. But we have to wait to see how the picture clears up. But to protect the portfolios, we can incorporate assets that serve as a safe haven: sovereign bonds of first credit rating, gold, hard currencies or raw materials.
