The currency market accounted for the largest volume of transactions. Its share in the total exchange turnover amounted to 56.3%. In the first six months of 2004, the volume of transactions in foreign currencies on the MICEX reached 123.2 bln US dollars, which exceeds 2 times the same figure for 2003 (in the first six months of 2003 – 60.1 bln US dollars).
In 2004, the volume of trading in corporate and regional securities continued to grow rapidly. In the first six months of 2004, the total volume of transactions in non-government securities, including stocks, bonds, shares of mutual funds and repo transactions, grew 1.8 times and reached 74.2 bln dollars (in the same period of 2003 - 40,6 bln US dollars). The share of transactions in these instruments in the total exchange turnover grew from 33.1% to 33.9%. The volume of secondary trading in stocks grew 1.7 times from 29.2 bln US dollars in the first six months of 2003 to 50.3 bln US dollars in the first six months of 2004. By the end of the first six months of the year, the MICEX Index reached 534.84 points (30.06.04), having increased by 4% since the beginning of the year (on 31.12.2003 – 514.71 points). The MICEX RCBI corporate bonds Index has grown by 3.84% since the beginning of the year and reached 103.84 points on 30 June.
The turnover of trading in corporate bonds continued to grow (2.1-fold growth), exceeding the overall dynamics of the stock market. The volume of transactions in corporate bonds reached 10.73 bln US dollars. The share of this instrument in the volume of exchange trading grew from 4.1 to 4.9%.
Regional and municipal bonds continue to demonstrate rapid growth. The volume of transactions in these instruments amounted to 7.08 bln US dollars (2.9-fold growth) and 0.18 bln US dollars (4.4-fold growth) correspondingly.
In the government securities (GKO/OFZ) market the total volume of transactions in the first six months of the year amounted to 21.3 bln US dollars (in the first six months of 2003 – 22.1 bln US dollars). The share of this segment in the overall exchange turnover decreased from 18.0% to 9.7%. At the same time, the volume of repo transactions in government securities grew 7.1 times in the first six month of 2004 over the same period of 2003. The Bank of Russia began to use the MICEX trading and settlement systems to hold its deposit auctions.
