Foreign exchange trading out of Russia continued its upward route in February 2021, having risen 5 percent compared with the previous month. But, at RUB 24 trillion ($325 billion), it was down in dollar terms from the equivalent in the prior year, a report by Moscow Exchange (MOEX) showed on Tuesday.
Overall, volumes at major institutional platforms were largely supported by a continuing rise in spot currency trading, according to industry reports seen yesterday.
MOEX’s total FX market turnover was higher month-over-month from RUB 22.9 trillion in January 2021. Compared with volumes from the same month a year earlier, this figure was slightly down from RUB 24.1 trillion in February 2020, but the topline change in nominal Ruble value hides less activity when priced in the greenback.
The average daily volumes in February 2021 reached RUB 1.19 trillion ($16.2 billion), down -19 percent in dollar terms against RUB 1.2 trillion ($19.9 billion) in 2020, Moex said in a statement.
Additionally, February 2021’s turnover included spot trades of RUB 7.8 trillion ($105 billion), up 7.7 percent from a year ago, and swap trades coming in at RUB 16.2 trillion ($219 billion).
Investors’ interest in OTC derivatives trading at Moscow Exchange continued its strong momentum in 2021 buoyed by a steady rise in volatility, coupled with a multi-year effort to bring new business to the platform.
According to its recent report, MOEX’s standardised OTC derivatives market grew 2.5 times as volumes reached RUB 86.9 billion at the end of February 2021.
Moscow Exchange’s derivatives offering lines up swaps, FX swaps, cross-currency swaps, FX forwards and options with maturities from three days to five years.
More than 626,000 retail investors flocked to Russia’s largest institutional trading venue in the first month of 2021, opening twice as many accounts as the monthly average in the previous year.
Moscow Exchange (MOEX) said in its monthly report that the number of retail investor accounts hit a 10 million milestone.
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