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The foreign exchange market leads by the volume of operations, although its proportion in the total value of trading of the MICEX Group dropped to 54.9% (in 2005: 63.9%). In the first quarter of 2006, the value of transactions in foreign currencies reached 183.3 billion dollars (5147 billion rubles), which is 1.5 times more than in the same period of 2005 (122.5 billion dollars) and 3.4% less than in the fourth quarter of 2005. The largest value was accounted for by operations in instrument USD/RUB_UTS_TOM. In the first quarter of 2006, 71.1 billion dollars worth of transactions were carried out, which is 18.1% more than the same figure for 2005. Traders’ interest in the euro/rubles segment grew significantly. The value of transactions in the euro in the first quarter of 2006 amounted to 1.7 billion euros, which is 258.6% more than the same figure for 2005.
In the first quarter of 2006, the proportion of swaps in the structure of operations in the exchange market continued to increase. During this period, in the dollar/ruble segment, the proportion of these transactions amounted to more than 38% (against 28% in 2005), while in the euro/ruble segment it reached 29% (against 6% in 2005). In the structure of the dollar/ruble segment, the proportion of USD/RUB_TOD amounted to 22% (in 2005: 28%), while the proportion of USD/RUB_TOM amounted to 39% (in 2005: 44%). In February 2006, a single commission rate of 0.001% for swaps was established to boost traders’ activity in the swaps segment.
In the first quarter of 2005, the liquidity of the corporate securities market on the MICEX Stock Exchange was growing rapidly. In the first three months of 2006, the total value of transactions in non-government securities on the MICEX SE, including stocks, bonds, units in mutual funds and repos, reached 112.2 billion dollars (3152 billion rubles), which is 3 times more than in the same period of 2005 (37 billion dollars) and 41.2% more than the figure for the 4th quarter of 2005. The proportion of operations in these instruments in the total trade volume of the MICEX Group grew to 33.6% (in 2005: 24.4%).
In the first quarter of 2006, the value of transactions in stocks on the MICEX Stock Exchange amounted to 80.2 billion dollars (2253 billion rubles), which is 3.6 times more than in the 1st quarter of 2005 and 57.2% more than in the 4th quarter of 2005. Traders were particularly active in buying and selling shares in RAO UES (34.6%), LUKoil (20.5%), Sberbank (8.6%), Gazprom (8.3%), Rostelecom (7.3%), Surgutneftegaz (5.4%), Norilsk Nickel (3.9%), Mobile TeleSystems (2.4%), Sibneft (1.5%), Uralsvyazinform (1.5%) and other stocks (5.9%). The value of repos in shares amounted to 12.9 billion dollars (4.5-times growth against the1st quarter of 2005). During the quarter, the capitalization of the market of shares, traded on the MICEX SE, grew more than two times and reached 572.1 billion dollars (at the end of 2005: 258.6 billion dollars), which is connected with the liberalization of the market of Gazprom shares and the overall increase of the stock market. An important event was the launch of trading in Gazprom shares on the MICEX Stock Exchange. The proportion of operations in Gazprom shares on the MICEX SE in the total value of trading in these shares grew from 10% on the first day of trading (23.01.2006) to 48% on 31.03.2006. The MICEX Index, which mirrors the situation in the Russian stock market, has grown by 28.5% to 1299.19 points since the beginning of the year (30.12.2005: 1011.00 points).
The market of corporate and regional bonds continues to grow rapidly. Its proportion in the total trading value reached 9.6%. Over the first three months of 2006, the value of transactions in corporate bonds amounted to 24.0 billion dollars (2.6-times growth against the same period of 2005); the value of transactions in regional bonds reached 7.7 billion dollars (1.5-times growth), while the value of transactions in municipal bonds amounted to 270 million dollars. The value of repos in bonds grew to 11.3 billion dollars (4.4-times growth).
Investors’ interest in mutual funds is growing. The value of trading in their shares reached 11 million dollars (9.6-times growth against the 1st quarter of 2005).
Since the beginning of 2006, the number of securities traded on the MICEX SE has grown by 14%, while the number of issuers whose securities are admitted to trading has grown by 15%. At present, 767 securities of 478 issuers trade on the MICEX SE. Of those, 182 securities of 98 issuers are listed.
In the market of government securities and the money market, the total value of transactions in the 1st quarter of 2006 grew 2.7 times to 32.7 billion US dollars or 915 billion rubles (12.0 billion dollars for the corresponding period of 2005), including transactions in GKO/OFZ, OBR, repos and deposit operations of the Bank of Russia. The proportion of this segment in the total trading value of the MICEX Group reached 9.8%. In the first three months of 2006, the value of repos in the government securities market amounted to 17.8 billion dollars, having increased 28.8 times against the corresponding period of 2005.
Traders’ stable interest in the market of currency futures lead to new records. In the MICEX Derivatives (Standard Contracts) Market Section, in the 1st quarter of 2006, the value of trading reached 5.7 billion dollars (160 billion rubles), which is 11.4 times more than in the corresponding period of 2005 and 47% more than the figure for the 4th quarter of 2006. In March, a record figure of 81.1 billion rubles or 2 913 810 contracts was reached (the previous record month was December 2005, when the value of trading amounted to 2 297 460 contracts). The open interest in the MICEX derivatives market in the ruble-dollar contract remains stable: at the end of March it amounted to 1.91 billion dollars (at the end of 2005: 1.96 billion dollars). In March, the MICEX Board adopted the new versions of the Section’s by-laws regulating putting options into circulation. It is intended to use futures on the US dollar as the underlying asset of options.
