11 March 2004 08:15
OFZ trading hits year high
Dealers say the high trading may be due to manipulation by the
Pension Fund, which should transfer pension savings for 2002 to
MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - OFZ trading volume was the year's highest on Thursday at 6 billion rubles, of
which about 77% was in transactions with mid- and long- term amortization bonds.
management companies by the end of the month. Deputy Finance Minister Bella Zlatkis said on Wednesday that the Fund
had already sold almost all the bonds on the secondary market and on Thursday it may have sold the remaining bonds.
OFZ 45001 and 46001 bond prices did not change although trading volumes totaled 1.49 billion and 1.65 billion rubles,
respectively.
Another reason behind the brisk trading may be that major players were moving funds from short-term OFZ into longer
bonds, as the drop in prices for short bonds and climb for long bonds indicates. Quotes for OFZ-FD 27018 (maturing in
2005) went down 5 basis points in volume of 1.1 billion rubles. Long-term OFZ-AD went up 7 to 30 basis points. Volume
with 46002, 46003 and 46014 bonds totaled 1.5 billion rubles.
There were no GKO deals Thursday.
Analysts expect lighter trading Friday and very slight quote
The Central Bank held a reverse modified repo auction Thursday, offering OFZ 46006 with repurchase on September 16
2004. The Bank sold 44.777 million rubles worth of the 414.109 million rubles in bonds offered and raised 43.9 million
rubles. Initial demand totaled 102.978 million rubles, or 100.94 million rubles by market cost. The weighted average
price was 98.0375%, equal to yield of 3.89%. The cut off price was 98.029% of face value, which corresponds to yield of
3.9%.
The Finance Ministry placed 10 million rubles in OFZ 27025 bonds, 45 million in 46001, 334 million in 46003, and
669.727 million in 46002 bonds on the secondary market Thursday.
Weighted average yield for OFZ-FD and OFZ-AD bonds went up 0.73% to 5.51%.
fluctuations. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU EMRG GVD INSI] me <>
[Interfax] |
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