Market performance

EQUITY & BOND MARKET

The Equity and Bond Market is a liquidity center for operations with Russian securities and the main platform for Russian companies to raise capital. MOEX is a leading venue for issuance and trading of shares and depositary receipts of Russian and foreign shares; government, regional and corporate bonds; Bank of Russia bonds; sovereign and corporate Eurobonds; investment units of mutual funds (PIFs) and exchange-traded mutual funds (BPIFs); mortgage participation certificates; and shares of exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Trading results

In 2020, total trading volumes on the Equity and Bond Market amounted to RUB 54.5 trln, which is 34% higher than in 2019. Trading volumes on the Equity Market increased by 93% to RUB 23.9 trln, reaching an all-time high. Bond Market trading volumes totaled RUB 30.6 trln, an 8.5% increase versus 2019.

In 2020, the volume of bond placements increased by 11.1% to RUB 19.5 trln, despite the volume of placements of overnight bonds declining over the last year (RUB 4.5 trln in 2020 vs RUB 5.9 trln in 2019) and the Bank of Russia bond issue volumes decreasing by 15% to RUB 5.1 trln. At the same time, Russian government bond (OFZ) placements increased by more than 2.5 times and corporate bond Corporate bond placements added 24.1%.

In 2020, 61 first-time bond issuers placed a total of RUB 515 bln, including debut placements of foreign government bonds of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the amount of RUB 39.5 bln.

The increase in trading volumes on the Equity Market was primarily driven by the record inflow of retail investors, the expansion of trading hours due to the introduction of the evening trading session, as well as a significant increase in the number of traded instruments, also thanks to foreign shares.

The massive issuance of bonds with a variable coupon rate (OFZ-PK) by Russian Ministry of Finance in 2020 resulted in a change in the of the government bond market structure: the share of OFZ-PK bonds increased from 18% to 34% (RUB 4.7 trln) of the total volume with constant coupon bonds.

In 2020, volumes of the primary corporate bond market (excluding overnight bonds) increased by 25% to RUB 3.97 trln. A record RUB 265.6 bln was placed in regional bonds, an increase by 2.4 times versus 2019.

In 2020, the MOEX Russia Index grew by 8%, the RTS Index decreased by 10.4%. By the end of 2020, the MOEX Russia Index reached an all-time high of 3,289.

Attracting retail investors

The number of individuals with brokerage accounts on Moscow Exchange increased by almost 5 million in 2020 and reached an all-time high of 8.8 million people. The number of opened individual investment accounts also doubled, reaching 3.45 million by the end of the year.

Retail investors accounted for 41% of stock trading volume in 2020, versus 34% in 2019. They are the most active participants of after-hours trading, generating 69% of total trading volume.

In 2020, the share of individuals in corporate bond placements, not including short-term bonds and large non-market issues, was 18.1% versus 12.7% in 2019; they accounted for 12.5% of secondary trading of corporate bonds, versus 10.6% in 2019. The total number of retail investors who traded bonds in 2020 increased to 817,000, which is twice as much as in 2019.

The activity of retail investors is growing at a high rate. In 2020, 2.3 million individuals traded on the Equity Market; more than 200,000 investors traded on a daily basis, which is three times more than in 2019.

In November, Moscow Exchange set price deviation limits for execution of market orders to mitigate risks for retail investors on the Equity & Bond Market. The mechanism curbs the impact of orders with substantial difference in the price from market prices on the overall pricing process.

Evening trading sessions

In June 2020, Moscow Exchange offered trading in shares, depositary receipts, ETFs and Russian-law ETFs from 19:00 to 23:50 (Moscow time). By the end of the year, 45 shares and depositary receipts on shares of Russian companies included in the MOEX Russia Index, 55 shares of foreign companies and 19 ETFs were admitted to after-hours trading.

To support liquidity during the evening trading session, Moscow Exchange introduced a market-making program aimed at maintaining quotes during the session.

In 2020, trading volumes of the evening trading session was RUB 777 bln, reaching 8% of total turnover of the Equity Market in December 2020.

Following the introduction of the evening trading session, the functionality of the online customer registration service was also expanded: trading members can register clients until 23:30 MSK, and clients are able to start trading in a matter of seconds after signing a brokerage service agreement.

International stocks

In August 2020, Moscow Exchange began trading in international stocks; in 2020, a total of 53 stocks of the most well-known and large US companies and two depositary receipts on shares of Chinese companies were admitted to trading.

In 2020, trading volumes in foreign stocks amounted to RUB 86 bln, more than 7,000 investors executed trades in the securities every day.

International stocks are traded both during the main and evening trading sessions.

Exchange-traded funds

In 2020, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) showed the greatest growth versus other instrument groups. Total trading volumes in ETFs increased six times to RUB 295 bln YoY, and the net asset value (NAV) of ETFs exceeded RUB 146 bln, increasing by RUB 107 bln in 2020.

A total of 55 ETFs are available on Moscow Exchange, of which three ETFs and 20 Russian-law ETFs were added in 2020. ETFs are popular among retail investors due to high diversification across investment vehicles: they provide an opportunity to invest in instruments of 50 countries worldwide.

In November 2020, ETFs and Russian-law ETFs were admitted to after-hours trading, which significantly expanded the investment opportunities for retail investors.

In December 2020, Moscow Exchange presented a mechanism for the placement of closed-end mutual funds via the Exchange, that allows to make the instrument more available and reduce costs of assets management companies associated for attracting investors.

Liquidity

On 22 June 2020, all corporate and regional bonds were transferred to the boards without full collateral required and with deferred settlement (settlement cycle T+1; Eurobonds: settlement cycle T+2). In November-December 2020, the average daily trading volume in all corporate and regional bonds increased by 45% to RUB 5.1 mln compared to April-May 2020, and spreads in liquid issues narrowed by 1.8 times over the same period.

To improve liquidity of the Bond Market, the Exchange is working on adjusting risk parameters with an option to post less than 100% collateral and lifting the ban on short selling, as well as adapting the risk assessment methodology for subordinated and mortgage bonds. At the end of 2020, 707 of the 2,227 listed bonds were traded without full collateral required and without the ban on short selling.

The Exchange decided to decrease bond placement fees by 50% for issues of up to RUB 1 bln and by RUB 100,000 for issues of over RUB 1 bln starting from 1 January 2021 to stimulate the development of the market for structured bonds issued under Russian law.

In September 2020, two open bilateral market-making programs were launched for local corporate bonds and Eurobonds to improve liquidity.

Expanding the range of instruments

In 2020, the range of Eurobonds available for trading on order books in small lots (~USD 1,000) was expanded. This product is aimed at increasing the availability of FX instruments for retail investors who seek to diversify their investment portfolios. Since April 2020, 26 issues of corporate, and 5 issues of sovereign Eurobonds (including 3 issues in Belarus) have been admitted to trading. In 2020, trading volumes in all Eurobonds increased by 60% to RUB 213 bln.

As a result of the software update in 2020, the OTC system offers now trading in commercial bonds and automated OTC reporting through the OTC monitor. As of the end of 2020, 97 companies were connected to the OTC system, the number of users reached 170, and 22 companies executed trades in the system.

To deepen the differentiation of customer access to non-government bonds depending on features and credit quality attributed to a bond, the Exchange created the Sector of High Investment Risk Companies for shares and bonds in June 2020.

Attracting SMEs

To encourage SMEs to tap the public markets, the Growth Sector has been functioning on MOEX since 2017. The Growth Sector is intended to attract funds to high-potential companies in the real sector of the economy, to expand the range of traded instruments on the financial market and to diversify investors’ allocations.

The Growth Sector is supported by the SME Corporation, MSP Bank, and the Ministry of Economic Development. The main partner of this initiative is the Bank of Russia.

In 2020, securities of 20 issuers were included in the Growth Sector, including 12 bonds of SME issuers. The total Growth Sector bond issuance was RUB 20.8 bln at the end of 2020, including bond issues by SME issuers of RUB 6.8 bln.

As part of the implementation of the SME national project, SME issuers have access to financial support instruments. In 2020, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation provided subsidies on bond coupon rates in the amount of RUB 124.2 mln for 18 transactions, and SME Bank provided anchor investments for a total amount of RUB 1,280 bln for 10 transactions.

Innovation and Investment Market

The Innovation and Investment Market (IIM) has successfully operated on MOEX since 2009. The IIM was created to promote investment in the innovation sector of the Russian economy. One of the support measures for the sector is tax incentives for investors: investment income from securities of issuers with a market capitalization of up to RUB 25 bln is not taxable, provided that the investor holds them for at least one year.

In 2020, nine securities were placed on the IIM Sector: seven bonds of five issuers. In 2020, total trading volumes in the IIM Sector grew 385% YoY to RUB 280 bln.

In 2020, MOEX continued working with development institutions and private equity funds to stimulate pre-IPO financing for potential issuers: in particular, the IIM Sector began trading in VTB Capital’s closed-end mutual fund, that covers four companies from high-tech sectors of the economy which are candidates for an IPO in the IIM Sector.

Listing of securities

MOEX is constantly working to increase the quality of securities included in its quotation lists by improving issuing procedures and encouraging issuers to adhere to best practices of corporate governance. This work is aimed at increasing the transparency and attractiveness of the Russian stock market and protecting the interests of retail and institutional investors.

As part of the intensified process of informing investors about the quality of traded securities, 97 securities of 57 issuers were included in the Sector of High Investment Risk Companies in 2020.

The Sustainability Sector, intended for securities placed with the aim of raising funds or refinancing environmental or other social projects, welcomed four issuers s compliant with the green/social financing principles of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) or Social Bond Principles (SBP).

The Exchange is actively working with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting the development of the SME national project. The Exchange will maintain preferential tariffs for the issuance of bonds by SME issuers until the end of 2021.

In 2020, a tariff model was developed for the inclusion and placement of structured bonds and foreign bonds with payments (income and/or the nominal value) depending on whether one or more predetermined events occur.

As of the end of 2020, 2,734 securities of 706 issuers were admitted to trading, including 264 shares of 213 issuers and 1,816 bonds of 350 issuers. The Exchange’s quotation lists include 1,033 securities of 231 issuers; the Level 1 List includes 658 securities of 146 issuers and the Level 2 List includes 375 securities of 107 issuers.

In 2020, Sovcomflot, Samolet and Ozon carried out their initial public offerings (IPO) at Moscow Exchange. Foreign securities of seven new issuers such as Etalon Group, Petropavlovsk PLC, Globaltrans, MD Medical Group Investments PLC, O`KEY Group S.A., Mail.ru Group and HeadHunter Group were also listed.

DERIVATIVES MARKET

Moscow Exchange’s Derivatives Market is Russia’s largest and one of the world’s leading venues for derivatives trading. The market brings together deep liquidity, a broad product offering, performance guarantees from the Central Counterparty and state-of-the-art technologies for the trading of futures and options. Derivatives Market participants can trade derivative financial instruments on indices, Russian and foreign shares, Russian government bonds (OFZ), foreign currencies, interest rates and commodities (oil, precious metals and industrial metals, agricultural products).

2020 was a year of active inflow of new clients to the Derivatives Market, marking an increase in their activity. As of the end of 2020, the number of active clients increased by 42% YoY to more than 93,000. The number of accounts registered on the market increased 2.2 times to 4.3 million.

Trading volumes

In 2020, total trading volumes on the Derivatives Market amounted to RUB 129.9 trln, or 2,067 mln contracts (versus RUB 82.4 trln or 1,455 contracts in 2019), including futures trading volumes of RUB 124.5 trln and options trading volumes of RUB 5.3 trln.

In 2020, the average trading volume of the Derivatives Market increased by 59% YoY. FX contracts grew most rapidly with the average daily trading volume increasing 115% YoY on the back of high ruble volatility. Index and single stock contracts also showed strong performance (+56% YoY). Trading volumes in the most liquid contracts such as the USD/RUB FX futures and RTS Index futures increased by 124% and 89%, respectively.

Moscow Exchange was one of the exchanges globally by oil futures trading volume, according to the Futures Industry Association (FIA). According to the FIA, the MOEX Brent oil futures contract maintained the first position among energy derivatives worldwide for the third year in a row. The MOEX USD/RUB FX futures contract was another popular instrument ranked as No.2 in the international rating for FX derivatives.

New product offering

In 2020, the Derivatives Market continued to actively expand the line of derivatives on various types of assets with the aim of providing additional trading and hedging opportunities to professional participants and portfolio managers as well as retail investors. Today, 78 futures and 39 options are available to the Derivatives Market participants.

In February, trading in natural gas futures was successfully launched on the market. In just a year, the contract successfully gained momentum and became one of the most liquid contracts in the commodity section with an average daily turnover of RUB 495 mln. In early 2021, MOEX launched options on the futures.

In 2020, Moscow Exchange significantly expanded its range of equity derivatives. It launched futures on shares of Yandex, Polymetal and Inter RAO and on global depositary receipts of Tinkoff, X5 and Mail.ru. Weekly options on futures on shares of Gazprom and Sberbank were added to trading.

At the end of the year, a large-scale project was implemented jointly with the Commodities Market, which rolled out a deliverable wheat futures contract designed to become the first Russian wheat price benchmark.

Technological development

Among technological projects, the Exchange implemented synthetic matching of calendar spreads, and also made a big step in the development of block trading by launching the RFS service (Request for Stream) at the beginning of the year and providing clients with the opportunity to place iceberg orders from September.

Synthetic matching of calendar spreads allows searching counter interest in futures that form a calendar spread, not only inside its order book, but also in the order books of related instruments. Since the launch, trading volumes in calendar spreads have grown more than 15 times on average; trading volumes amounted to about 588,000 contracts in the first eight months of 2020 and 4,573,000 in the last four months of 2020.

The RFS service allows trading large blocks without affecting the market price and on more favorable terms compared to the order book. The service works through a distinct anonymous auction in which the liquidity taker submits an order indicating its volume and optionally, type (sell/purchase). Liquidity makers provide quotes at which they are ready to make a transaction for that volume, and the best option is transmitted to the taker. As a result, the non-negotiated trade with the central counterparty is executed.

Iceberg orders are also designed to facilitate large block trading. They allow making only part of an order visible to the market in order to mitigate the impact of larger than market orders on the market price. At order entry, clients specified the total amount of the order and its fixed visible portion. When the visible portion is fully filled at the market price, the next portion becomes visible.

In 2020, MOEX offered an option to execute trades in derivatives at negative prices for certain underlying assets.

MOEX plans to roll out even more services and instruments in 2021, including the introduction of an morning trading session in March 2021, which will start at 7 am MSK.

Liquidity

2020 was marked by high volatility, and one of the main objectives of the Exchange was to maintain liquidity during periods of sharp market fluctuations. MOEX automated and implemented the process of changing the terms of market maker obligations during periods of increased volatility for a number of futures contracts.

The market making schemes for options were amended to optimize the formula for calculating the spread to be maintained by market makers. The formula now includes time to expiration, that allows setting spreads closer to the market when market makers start performing their obligations for the instrument.

In addition, in 2020, the Exchange launched programs to maintain liquidity for new instruments of the equity, commodity, and money sections.

FX MARKET

Moscow Exchange is the oldest regulated trading venue in Russia, and has offered FX trading since 1992. It is a liquidity center for operations with the Russian ruble and a crucial element of the Russian financial system. The Bank of Russia relies on the FX Market to implement monetary policy and sets the official USD/RUB rate using results of trading on the FX Market.

In 2020, the share of MOEX’s FX Market in the total volume of FX operations made by Russian banks across all currency pairs increased on average from 44% to 47%; MOEX’s share increased from 57% to 58% in USD/RUB trading and from 64% to 68% in EUR/RUB trading.

Trading volumes

Trading volumes in the FX Market in 2020 accounted for RUB 329 trln, up 7% versus 2019. Spot trading volumes grew by 44% to RUB 97 trln, while swap trading volumes decreased by 4% to RUB 232 trln.

Problems in the global economy and financial markets associated with the spread of the pandemic, the fall in oil prices and the elections in the U.S. have caused the growth of volatility and fueled the interest of counterparties in conversion operations. On the contrary, there was a decline in swap transactions due to a decrease in ruble interest rates. As a result, the share of spot transactions in the FX market increased over the year from 22% to 29.5%, while the share of swap transactions decreased from 78% to 70.5%.

In 2020, the structure of trading by currency pair changed insignificantly: the share of trading accounted for by the USD/RUB pair increased from 79% to 81%, and the share of trading accounted for by the EUR/RUB pair decreased from 17% to 15%. All other currency pairs remained flat YoY at 4%.

Expansion of the client base

Access for corporations

Since the end of 2020, management companies of investment funds, mutual investment funds (MIF) and non-state pension funds (NPF) have also received the opportunity to operate on the FX Market, along with professional participants, corporations and insurance companies. At the end of 2020, 43 corporations, including insurance companies, connected to the FX Market. Their aggregate trading volume increased in 2020 by 64% to RUB 1.8 trln (RUB 1.1 trln in 2019).

In 2020, the Federal Treasury continued to trade overnight currency swaps (meaning the provision of rubles secured by US dollars) on the FX Market.

Attracting private clients

In 2020, lower interest rates on deposits drove individuals’ interest in investing in financial assets, which became an important driver of growth on the FX Market.

The number of active individual clients grew almost five times to 730,000.

In 2020, volume of conversion operations by individuals more than doubled, exceeding RUB 24 trln, while the share of individuals in spot transactions increased on average from 8% to 12%.

Technological development

In the context of competition with numerous OTC electronic platforms, the main emphasis in the development of the exchange market is placed on technological and organizational innovations that provide a comprehensive service offering to all categories of customers: new product solutions, expanded trading hours, differentiated tariffs, international cooperation, links with international platforms and much more.

OTC services development and technology initiatives

One of the main principles of the FX Market’s development strategy is to provide various services for order execution across a range of volumes and client types, and for clearing of these transactions.

At the end of March, hours of trading were expanded for such boards as “Links with foreign liquidity providers” and “Request for Stream” (RFS) with the trading now starting at 9:30 am MSK. In 2020, volume of RFS transactions exceeded RUB 45 bln.

The mode of providing large-block liquidity for the ‘Euro - US dollar’ currency pair has been added to the “Links with foreign liquidity providers” service. In the “OTC market large transactions” mode for the EUR / USD_SPT instrument, it became possible to submit large orders in full amount on fixed bends - 1, 2, 5 and 10 million euros.

The “Links with foreign liquidity providers” service was streamlined to include a mode with large-block liquidity in EUR/USD. The “Large OTC Transactions” mode now offers Full Amount Block Orders for EUR/USD_SPT of fixed sizes of 1, 2, 5 or 10 million euros.

Obtaining a flow of quotations from major Western liquidity providers strengthened MOEX’s positions in the currency pairs Euro – US dollar, Pound sterling – US dollar, US dollar – Chinese yuan, US dollar – Turkish lira and US dollar – Japanese yen. In 2020, total trading volumes in G10 currencies doubled YoY and exceeded RUB 1.1 trln.

In 2020, a major step was taken in the development of clearing services with an option for OTC trades executed by MOEX clearing members on OTC platforms to be cleared by the central counterparty. The service allows mitigating credit and settlement risks and performing settlement netting and cross-margining across on-exchange and OTC trades.

In 2020, Moscow Exchange acquired a stake in the leading OTC aggregator NTPro with the aim to participate in the development of the OTC FX market in addition to the on-exchange market and offer customized services to its clients.

Expanding the range of instruments

The last year’s launch of the new SpeedBump technology with a random program delay of orders and asymmetrical maker/taker fees, which allows liquidity takers to conclude transactions with zero trading fee, made it possible to gain large-block liquidity from non-banking providers and major Russian banks. In 2020, the “Large Spot Transactions” mode was increasingly popular among participants. Trading volume increased by more than five times YoY to RUB 2 trln.

With the TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price) algorithm rolled out, participants now can sell the amount evenly over the pre-determined time period. In December 2020, the average daily trading volume made using TWAP was USD 100 mln.

The functionality for additional checks of client SMA orders was implemented, which allows more effective management of client risks.

In August 2020, Moscow Exchange authorised the use of its FX fixings by CME Group’s EBS eFix Matching Service platform. This promotes the MOEX FX fixings among a wider range of international banks and their clients on the global market and strengthen their status as the main global FX benchmarks for the Russian ruble.

In the context of the pandemic and transition to remote working, the Exchange made efforts to organize a convenient trading schedule for its clients. In late September, trading hours for TOD instruments and overnight swaps in Chinese Yuan, Swiss Franc, Turkish Lira, Belarusian Ruble and Kazakhstan Tenge were extended to 12:00 noon (Moscow time) in response to demand from participants, primarily those from north-east regions and Asia.

Attracting international investors

As of the end of 2020, more than 17,000 non-resident clients from 130 countries of the world were registered on MOEX’s FX Market. In December 2020, the number of active non-resident clients doubled YoY and exceeded 1,870.

In 2020, the share of non-residents in spot turnover increased on average from 38% to 43%.

In 2020, turnover of non-residents’ transactions under the SMA (Sponsored Market Access) and ICM (International Clearing Membership) schemes almost doubled and totaled RUB 35 trln.

As part of a strategic partnership agreement with Moscow Exchange, Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) introduced a new trading and clearing platform on its FX market, which was developed based on Moscow Exchange technologies. In the future, the exchanges plan to use the benefits of the unified trading technologies to aggregate liquidity in KZT/RUB.

Moscow Exchange continues developing the integrated FX Market of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). In 2020, within the EAEU Integrated FX Market project, access to the FX Market was provided to Belinvestbank (Belarus). Thus, as at the end of 2020, direct access to MOEX’s FX Market was provided to 19 banks from Eurasian Economic Union countries, including two international financial institutions: the Interstate Bank and the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB). In 2020, trading volumes generated by participants of the integrated FX Market doubled to RUB 2.7 trln.

MONEY MARKET

Moscow Exchange’s Money Market is one of the most important segments of the Russian financial market through which market participants carry out cash liquidity management. The Bank of Russia implements monetary policy via the Money Market, and the Federal Treasury deposits funds of the federal budget and, from 2021, funds of the Single Treasury Account.

The key segment of the Money Market is repo transactions with the Central Counterparty (CCP), performed by NCC, which guarantees fulfilment of obligations before all participants. Repo with the CCP in general collateral certificates (GCC) is also available and is now the most widely traded segment on the Money Market.

Trading volumes

In 2020, total Money Market trading volumes amounted to RUB 426.8 trln, up 23.2% YoY.

Repo trading volumes for 2020 totalled RUB 379.1 trln, accounting for 89% of total Money Market volumes; trading volumes of deposit and credit transactions for 2020 totalled RUB 47.6 trln.

The year-on-year increase in total market trading volumes was the result of a 20.7% increase (to RUB 243.8 trln) in the volume of repo transactions with the CCP. The average daily open position in repos with the CCP in 2020 increased by 28% - to RUB 3.65 trln.

GCC repo continues to be the most-fastest growing repo product in 2020: trading volumes increased by 38.9% YoY to RUB 75.1 trln, and the average daily open position added 30% to RUB 950 bln.

In April 2020, Federal Treasury funds began to be deposited with the CCP via auctions. The volume of deposited funds in 2020 totalled RUB 6.4 trln.

In July 2020, the RUSFAR (Russian Secured Funding Average Rate) Money Market rate was recognized by the Bank of Russia as compliant with the requirements for financial indicators based on the Principles for Financial Benchmarks of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (“IOSCO”). The Bank of Russia has accredited RUSFAR rates across all terms: overnight, one week, two weeks, one month and three months for RUB and overnight for USD.

Expanding the range of instruments

Direct repo with floating rates was implemented, which allowed the Bank of Russia to lend banks at a rate tied to the key rate of the Bank of Russia.

In order to provide participants of the Money Market with a more flexible approach to liquidity management, MOEX implemented the following projects in 2020:

• a new order type, an iceberg order, was introduced to allow participants to place/raise large amounts of funds at the best rates via repo with the CCP by making only part of the order amount visible to the market;
• In July, operations of the Federal Treasury were further enhanced by the option to place foreign currency via repo transactions executed in the exchange terminal with collateral management and settlements at NSD. Transaction volumes in 2020 amounted to RUB 30.7 bln.
• In December 2020, the Credit Market, a new segment within MOEX’s Money Market, was created. Both repo and CCP deposit markets participants can be admitted to the Credit Market. At the same time, only banks can place funds, and all participants can raise funds without restrictions. Only negotiated transactions without the CCP involved are available; the transactions are executed in RUB or foreign currency (USD or EUR) for any term up to three years.

Attracting new categories of participants

MOEX continued to expand direct access to the Money Market for Russian legal entities that are neither credit institutions nor professional securities market participants.

A number of innovations were implemented that facilitated corporate clients’ operations on the Money Market:

• iceberg orders were introduced to allow placing large amounts of funds at the best rates;
• an optional service was launched to allow consolidation of numerous small transactions into one deposit and thus relieve a company’s accounting systems;
• an option to post collateral in securities was provided.

In 2020, 22 companies were provided with access to the deposit market with the CCP, including manufacturers, insurance, asset management companies and non-government pension funds. Their total number reached 130 and total trading volume was RUB 20.7 trln.

COMMODITIES MARKETS

MOEX promotes commodities trading through two key commodities markets: precious metals and agricultural. Precious metals are traded on the MOEX FX Market platform, while trading in agricultural products is operated by the National Mercantile Exchange (NAMEX), part of Moscow Exchange Group.

On-exchange trading in agricultural products

Spot trading in sugar was launched in 2020. The project has implemented a trading model with direct admission of buyers and sellers (without a broker or central counterparty). Sellers on the sugar market are plants or holding companies of producers with or without constant collateral of RUB 1 million. Any companies other than individual entrepreneurs are eligible to act as a buyer. Delivery basis are plants that have started production in the current season. Trading is run in the form of a bilateral anonymous auction. NSD clears and settles the sale and purchase contracts executed on the exchange. The project is supported by the Exchange Committee of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia, Soyuzrossakhar, and representatives of the industry community.

Since 2017, NAMEX has also been holding trading in sugar forward contracts.

In 2020, trading volumes on the sugar market was RUB 3.95 bln, of which RUB 3.93 bln were traded on the Derivatives Market (2019: RUB 3.96 bln) and RUB 20.1 mln on the spot market.

Since 2002, NAMEX has been the authorised exchange of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture for state commodity and procurement interventions on the grain market. In 2020, grain sales from the government intervention fund on NAMEX totaled 1.78 mln tons, or RUB 21.43 bln (2019: 970,200 tons, or RUB 10.3 bln).

In total since 2002, 34.48 mln tons of grain have been sold under government interventions for a total amount of RUB 211.83 bln, and the total number of trading participants exceeded 9,500 producers, processors and exporters of grain.

In December 2020, MOEX Derivatives Market introduced a deliverable wheat futures contract with delivery performed on the NAMEX spot market. Trades are cleared by National Settlement Depository.

Precious Metals Market

MOEX has offered on-exchange trading in precious metals (gold and silver) since 2013. Gold and silver are traded on the FX Market platform using a unified system of margining and risk management. NCC acts as the Central Counterparty and provides clearing and settlement services on the market. Metals are delivered to clearing members’ precious metals accounts opened with CCP NCC. Post-trade services include dealing with bullion at NCC’s depository, and an option to use precious metals held on market participants’ accounts as collateral.

In 2020, total turnover on MOEX’s Precious Metals Market increased by 50% to RUB 52.6 bln.

Since November 2020, Russia’s largest brokerage companies have started providing individuals with access to the Precious Metals Market with an option for individuals to trade gold and silver on their own.

In 2020, the number of participants of the Precious Metals Market increased from 56 to 63, of which 47 were credit institutions, 14 brokerage and investment companies and 3 mining companies (of which two entered the market in 2020).