Alpari Russia (RU) has reported its monthly trading volumes for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) during February, having dropped to $110.8 billion (-22.7% MoM) from $136 billion in January, according to an Alpari company statement.
The Forex broker presently serves a seemingly expansive clientele – Alpari RU has been a shining example amongst forex brokers in recent months, given its recent strong January volumes which came in at $136 billion to start the year. This most recent month saw volumes wane to $110.8 billion however, returning to December 2013 levels.
Alpari Director Weighs in on Decline
There are likely several factors explaining the decline and according to Vladislav Kovalchuk, Director of Marketing at Alpari in a statement on the metrics, "In the last month there were two fundamental factors causing traders to either decrease their trading volume or else stay away from the market altogether. The first was the release of macro-statistics from the USA revealing unexpectedly weak dynamics, giving rise to uncertainty in the market. The second factor is Russia's charged political conflict over Ukraine, the implications of which are forcing investors into behaving carefully until the situation is clarified."
In addition, Alpari RU’s most widely traded currency pairs during the month of February included the EUR/USD ($46.3 billion), the GBP/USD ($28.9 billion) and the USD/JPY ($8.8 billion) across Russia and the CIS. It is unclear how the lingering crisis in Ukraine will effect volumes moving forward, however any further escalation towards war could certainly instigate widespread Volatility in the currency markets.
