Saint Petersburg stock exchange where traded shares of foreign, primarily American, companies, increased trading volume in April in half. At the same time on the Moscow exchange, the trading volume primarily in Russian stocks in April fell by a third. Brokers say that Russian investors were interested in not only the growth of overseas indices last month, but a larger number of issuers, respectively, and investment ideas.Saint Petersburg stock exchange may 5, reported record trading volume in securities of foreign issuers. In April 2020 it was $9,45 billion (in recalculation on the Russian currency USD 0.7 trillion), exceeding the 1.45 times the rate of March and 5.8 times last year’s result. As reported by “Kommersant” on the Moscow stock exchange in April, the trading volume in the stock market for stocks, shares and Depositary receipts amounted to 2.1 trillion rubles, a third less than it was in March (3.1 trillion rubles). Thus, trading volume of foreign securities in Russia is already one-third of trading volume in the Russian securities. The average daily trading volume on St. Petersburg exchange in April increased by 52% compared with March and made up $450 million For Moscow stock exchange this indicator has fallen 35% to 95 billion rubles, the Number of active accounts at the St. Petersburg stock exchange increased by 35% in comparison with March and amounted to 236 thousand Moscow exchange as long as the data are not disclosed.It is worth noting that the Moscow exchange this year again returned to the idea of trades of foreign securities conducted an informal poll of a number of brokers (see “Kommersant” on 20 April). The representative of the exchange, told “Kommersant”, this year there has been a significant increase in trading volumes of shares of Russian issuers and March was a record month, then many private investors used the decline of quotations to actively increase its position. He noted that in April, investors preferred to remain in securities purchased in March.The main reason for investor interest in foreign stocks was the rapid growth of the American market compared with the Russian. Thus, the index of the Moscow exchange increased during the month by 6%, while currency RTS index by 11%. As the NASDAQ Composite index (stocks of the index, mostly traded at the St. Petersburg stock exchange) climbed 15%. According to CEO of “VTB Capital Investments” Vladimir Potapov, the client turnover at the St. Petersburg stock exchange increased more than two times in comparison with March and five times in relation to the Jan. According to him, such dynamics is caused by investors ‘ expectations on the growth of the American market in connection with the measures of support. The representative of “Tinkoff” reported that in April on the Russian stock broker was the same ��the volume of client operations, as in March, although the number of active clients has grown. While American securities gains momentum was 70% against the March, and primarily due to new customers. In “BCS Broker” note that in April the turnover of customers via mobile app by Russian and American shares were equal.Brokers say the appeal of foreign securities to their large variety. Often in the auction are the shares of companies from such industries which are not on the Russian market or only in isolated instances. Increased demand from private investors to foreign securities, Director, brokerage business “BCS” Oleg Chikhladze explains the large number of investment ideas, which provides a widely diversified economy, and the emergence of a new generation of investors who come in digital channels. They are more familiar global players than a few Russian companies, whose number on the Moscow stock exchange is not growing. The representative of “Tinkoff” reported that, in General, a broker at the St. Petersburg stock exchange every day, there were approximately 15-20 of securities, on each of which the speed was not less than RUB 200 million, and often every day it was different paper. In Russia such names no less, but this list for many years remained almost unchanged.Polina Smorodskaya, Dmitry Ladygin
