The month of September has seen a rebound in trading volumes at Alpari. Turnover has increased by about 6 per cent when compared to August to $92.4 billion. Despite the higher number the performance of the brokerage has been subdued when compared to some industry peers.
The figure remains lower than July, when the company announced that $93.6 billion have changed hands at the brokerage. According to the official announcement, the main driver of growth last month was activity in the EUR/USD and GBP/USD currency pairs.
Looking at the prospective reasons for a slowdown at Alpari is the deep slump in the Russian ruble, with clients from Russia remaining the backbone of the broker’s business. Another possible complication for the brokerage is the high inflation rate in the country, which is eroding the purchasing power of prospective customers.
While volumes have been trending down for the most part of the second and third quarters, the figures have somewhat stabilized, as did the Russian ruble’s Exchange rate.
According to Barclays’ research team, “Inflation has started a downward cycle that will continue, benefiting from strengthening base effects. We expect inflation to fall to 12.5% at end-2015 and to 7% by mid-2016. This will facilitate resumption of Bank of Russia rate cuts when the trend becomes clearer and sustained as the RUB continues to follow oil price trends.”
If recent trends in oil prices continue and inflation indeed decelerates, Alpari’s trading volumes figures could soon pick back up.
