The currency market leads by the volume of operations, its proportion in the total exchange turnover amounting to 72%. In the 1st quarter of 2005, the volume of transactions in foreign currencies on the MICEX reached 122.5 billion US dollars and exceeded 1.9 times the corresponding figure for 2004 (in the 1st quarter of 2004 – 64.4 billion US dollars.).
The first few months of 2005 have shown that the transfer of business from the MICEX Stock Market Section to the MICEX Stock Exchange went smoothly. In the 1st quarter of 2005, the total volume of transactions in non-government securities, including stocks, bonds, shares of mutual funds and REPO operations, reached 37 billion US dollars, which corresponds to the level reached in the same period of 2004 (36.4 billion US dollars) and is more than 80% of the total turnover of securities in all Russian exchange floors. The proportion of operations in these instruments in the total exchange turnover amounted to 21.7%. The capitalization of the market of stocks circulating on the MICEX SE reached 162.9 billion US dollars (at the end of 2004 – 149.5 billion US dollars). The volume of transactions in stocks amounted to 22.4 billion US dollars, in corporate bonds – 9.29 billion US dollars, in regional and municipal bonds – 5.35 billion US dollars, in Eurobonds – about 10 million US dollars, in shares of mutual funds – about 1 million US dollars. The most dynamic market was the market of corporate bonds (1.7-fold increase over the 1st quarter of 2004), regional (1.3-fold increase) and municipal bonds (2.8-fold increase) as well as REPO operations in the stock market (1.4-fold increase).
In the 1st quarter of 2005, the total volume of transactions in the market of government securities (GKO/OFZ) amounted to 10.2 billion US dollars (in the 1st quarter of 2004 – 9.2 billion US dollars). The proportion of this segment in the MICEX’s total turnover amounts to 6%. The number of inter-dealer REPO operations in government securities is growing: in the 1st quarter of 2005, their volume grew 4.8 times over the same period of 2004.
The growing volatility of the currency market boosts participants’ interest in transactions in currency futures. In the 1st quarter of 2005, the volume of transactions in the MICEX Derivatives (Standard Contracts) Market Section reached 500 million US dollars. This exceeds 6.6 times the level of the 1st quarter of 2004. It also exceeds by 7% the total turnover of the whole of 2004. At the end of the quarter, the volume of open positions reached 300 million US dollars (at the end of 2004 – 140 million US dollars). The MICEX continues to widen the range of circulating instruments by launching trades in option contracts. The MICEX also focuses on improving the risk management system.
