Page 138 - RusRPTApr23

8.3 Stock market
8.3.1 Equity market dynamics
The volume of trading in foreign securities on the SPB Exchange where Russians can trade foreign listed shares in February fell more than 5 times compared to the same period last year - from $25.61bn to $4.69bn, the site reported on its website. The number of active investor accounts decreased by more than 4 times y/y and by 3.7% compared to January - to 198,280. The value has been close to this figure since March last year.
February 2022 can be considered a full-fledged non-sanctioned month, says Artem Autlev, an analyst at Ingosstrakh Investments. Trading volumes on the SPB Exchange collapsed already in the spring, the expert reminds: in March they fell by 77%, the number of active accounts - by a third. Compared to January, the trading volume decreased slightly - by 0.18%, but the number of active accounts fell more strongly - by 3.68%.
The average daily trading volume in February increased by 4.41% compared to January and amounted to $250mn, but the number of transactions in the main trading mode decreased by 27% to 5.71mn.
At the Moscow Exchange, where Russian issuers are mainly traded, the situation is more optimistic. In February, both the total trading volume and the stock market in particular grew by 1.6% (83.6 trillion rubles) and 55.5% (2.5 trillion rubles) relative to January, respectively. Compared to last February, the turnovers collapsed, but not as much as those of the SPB Exchange: the total volumes fell 1.2 times, and on the stock market - 2.3 times.
138 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com