After posting its 1st half of 2013 derivatives trading volumes results, the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) has released its June FX figures. FX continues to be bright spot for the MOEX as average daily volumes (ADV) during June hit $22.6 billion, an all-time for the venue. Volumes surpassed the previous high of $22.1 billion that was set on January 2009. The breakdown of FX volumes was $9.2 billion for spot (40.5%) and $13.5 billion for Swaps (59.5%).
The MOEX attributed the record volumes on a combination of rising Volatility and changes to FX trading conditions that took place recently. Specifically, the MOEX increased trading hours for USDRUB spot and swap instruments on April 15th by two hours. In addition, the MOEX recently launched CNY instruments which have boosted overall volumes. The yuan launch is part of the exchange’s push of diversifying its product mix beyond RUB instruments which comprise the vast majority of all FX volumes. During June, the MOEX announced that ADV of yuan instruments reached $5.59 million (CNY34.3 million) and on July 3rd, hit a record one day figure of $9 million (CNY55.2 million).
The MOEX added that volumes were also assisted by the increase of foreign market participants as “from the beginning of this year non-resident banks from member states of the Eurasian Economic Community have been admitted to the market within the framework of the project for establishing the Integrated Currency Market of the EEC.” The MOEX explained that “the admission has fostered trading both in key currency pairs, USD/RUB and EUR/RUB, and national currencies when trades in Belarusian ruble and Kazakhstan tenge were made on the Exchange's FX market in June.”
