FX trading volumes continue to decline at major institutional platforms as industry figures show the interest faded somewhat ahead of the holiday season after the sheer weight of bets on central banks’ policies and trade wars eased.
The latest major player to reveal its metrics was Moscow Exchange (MOEX), Russia’s largest institutional trading venue, which today said that only RUB 22.3 trillion ($347 billion) exchanged hands in November, down 17 percent from RUB 26.8 trillion in 2018. This figure is also lower by eight percent when compared with RUB 24.2 trillion ($380 billion) in October 2019.
Average daily trading volumes at MOEX’s FX market also fell by nine percent to RUB 1,116 billion ($17.5 billion) from RUB 1,274 billion ($19.2 billion) in November 2018. However, the ADV figure improved slightly by less than one percent from RUB 1,053 billion ($16.4 billion) in the previous month.
MOEX’s total FX turnover in November featured spot trades of RUB 4.7 trillion, and swap trades coming in at RUB 17.7 trillion. The Euro/US Dollar currency pair showed a robust growth of 86.5 percent last month to RUB 1.2 trillion compared to only RUB 627.8 billion in the prior year.
MOEX enjoyed a surge in FX volumes to fresh highs earlier this year, although the growth appears to have slowed considerably since the summer months.
According to the latest numbers, the exchange’s FX volume was unable to recover from recent lows with weaker ruble volumes, ultimately preventing a rebound from robust metrics it printed in 2017. The MOEX, however, continues to develop its infrastructure as part of a state-backed drive to make Russia’s largest institutional trading venue one of the world’s leading financial hubs.
The exchange has rolled out a no-fee model applied to USD/RUB trading, which benefits big Liquidity demanders within its FX market.
Also earlier this year, the MOEX started to quote the Japanese yen against the Russian ruble. The move to launch more trading pairs was designed to mirror the global foreign-exchange market and thus attract more clients, the MOEX said last year.
