The currency market leads by the volume of operations. Its proportion in the total exchange turnover is 68.2%. In the first half of 2005, the volume transactions in foreign currencies on the MICEX reached 239.2 billion dollars, having exceeded 1.9 times the corresponding figure for 2004 (in the first half of 2004: 123.2 billion dollars). 237.8 billion dollars was accounted for by the “US dollar/ruble” pair of currencies. In June 2005, in the MICEX Currency Market Section, trading began in euro-ruble instruments in accordance with new rules, which enabled to extend the time of trading, launch new euro instruments and adopt risk management systems similar to those used in trading in the US dollar. In the first half of 2005, the volume of trade in the euro amounted to 1.3 billion US dollars, which exceeds by 15% the corresponding figure for the first half of 2004.
The volume of trade in corporate securities is growing, although slowly, as a result of stabilization of situation in the domestic and international stock markets. In the Russian market, participants’ interest is shifting from operations in stocks to transactions in corporate and regional bonds. In the first half of 2005, the total volume of transactions in non-government securities on the MICEX Stock Exchange, including stocks, bonds, shares of mutual funds and repo operations, reached 81.8 billion dollars. This exceeds by 10% the result of the same period in 2004 (74.2 billion dollars) and amounts to over 80% of the total turnover of securities on all Russian floors. The proportion of operations in these instruments in the total exchange turnover amounted to 23.3%. At the same time, the volume of transactions in stocks on the MICEX SE amounted to 48.6 billion dollars, which is 13.6% less than was in the first half of 2004. The decrease was caused mainly by an unfavorable situation in the international stock market. In 2005, Altai Bread Company, Severstal-Auto Company and Lebedyansky Company made their IPOs. The capitalization of the market of stocks, traded on the MICEX SE, grew and reached 171.7 billion dollars (at the end of 2004: 149.5 billion dollars). Positive trends in the Russian stock market were reflected in the MICEX Index, which has grown by 15.9% to 639.98 points since the beginning of the year (552.22 points).
The market of corporate and regional bonds continues to grow rapidly. It accounts for 40.6% in the structure of stock trading and 9.5% in the total exchange turnover. The volumes of trade in different instruments reached in the first half of 2005 are as follows:
- corporate bonds: 20.66 billion dollars (growth: 1.9 times),
- regional bonds: 12.05 billion dollars (growth: 1.7 times),
- municipal bonds: 504.8 million dollars (growth: 2.8 times),
- shares of mutual funds: 2.7 million dollars (growth: 17.3%),
- repo operations in bonds: 5.87 billion dollars (growth: 1.8 times).
In the first half of 2005, the number of securities traded on the MICEX SE grew by 20%, while the number of issuers of traded securities grew by 16%. The number of listed securities grew by 9 %, while the number of their issuers grew by 12%. At present, 481 securities of 324 issuers are traded on the MICEX SE, of which 187 securities of 102 issuers are listed.
On the government securities market, the total volume of transactions grew 1.3 times in the first half of 2005, amounting to 28.1 billion US dollars (in the first half of 2004: 21.9 billion US dollars), including transactions in OFZ, bonds of the bank of Russia and repo operations. The proportion of this segment in the total exchange turnover of the MICEX Group is 8%. The market of the bonds of the bank of Russia, restored in 2004, shows especially rapid growth: in the first half of 2005, the volume of transactions in the bonds of the bank of Russia amounted to 8.1 billion dollars. The volume of inter-dealer repo transactions in the government securities market grew 10.2 times over the first half of 2004.
The market of currency futures shows the most rapid growth, caused by the growing volatility of the currency market and participants’ increased interest in hedging. In the first half of 2005, the volume of transactions in the MICEX Derivatives (Standard Contracts) Market Section reached 1.6 billion dollars, 17 times more than in the first half of 2004 and 3.5 times more than the whole volume reached in 2004. By the end of the first half of 2005, the volume of open positions on the MICEX reached 534 million dollars (end of 2004: 139 million dollars), which is 14.1% more than on the derivatives exchange in Chicago.
