22 April 2004 04:48
GKO-OFZ trading very slow Thursday
MOSCOW. April 22 (Interfax) - Trading on Russia's domestic debt market was extremely slow on Thursday, with most
bonds slipping in price.
Moscow bank representatives say the main reason for GKO-OFZ market investment activity lies in less banking system
ruble liquidity and continued dollar gains against the ruble on the currency market, leading to reduced demand for
government bonds.
On the other hand, most investors think inexpedient stepping up bond sales to get additional funds for resolving
current liquidity problems or buy dollars. First, the government bond price drop increased their yield and made them
more attractive. Second, the introduction of new norms for bank reporting needs lending organizations to keep a certain
portion of assets in government paper. And lastly, with the current oil prices any national currency devaluation cannot
be long-term.
The Central Bank had planned for this day an auction of reverse
modified repo with OFZ 46009 (buy-back November 18, 2004). But the
OFZ trading on April 22 came to 244.683 million rubles. turnover leaders were bonds with fixed coupon yield (OFZ-FD)
27025 (maturing in 2007), with which there were fourteen deals for an overall 68.345 million rubles. Also, these bonds
were virtually the only ones on the market Thursday whose average weighted prices rose. By the end of the trading day,
OFZ-FD 27025 had picked up one basis point to 102.01% of face value. These were joined by amortization issue (OFZ-AD)
46002 (maturing in 2012), the value of which gained 26 basis points to 109.45% of face value.
There was not a single deal with GKO on Thursday.
Experts predict that the market situation Friday will be the same,
The remaining bonds lost value on April 22. In the middle and short-term segments, quotations fell from 10 to 30
basis points, 30-31 basis points in the long-term segment.
Average weighted interest rates on the OFZ-FD and OFZ-AD markets Thursday rose 0.64% to 6.3% per annum.
auction was null and void due to a lack of bids.
with low trading activity and the interest rate uptrend continuing. [RU EUROPE EEU ASIA EMRG GVD INSI] cf
[Interfax] |
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