MOEX plans to boast 1,500+ international stocks in 2022: Batch of 80 rolling out on February
National Clearing Centre (NCC, part of Moscow Exchange Group) accepts securities of international companies as collateral for trades made on Moscow Exchange markets.
Moscow Exchange has announced plans to add 80 international stocks in order to bring the number of shares and depository receipts of international issuers available for trading on MOEX to 680.
The new batch of stocks to be made available for trading on 1 February 2022 will include Fidelity National Financial, Crocs, Vimeo.
The Russian exchange operator intends to focus extensively on international securities in 2022, with the number of such stocks soaring to more than 1,500.
International stocks as collateral for trades on MOEX
Moscow Exchange launched trading in international equities on 24 August 2020, with such securities being traded in the main and after-hours trading sessions and settled in RUB using MOEX’s infrastructure, including a qualified central counterparty and record-keeping with the central securities depository (NSD).
Trading on the Moscow Exchange’s Equity Market runs from 6:50 am to 11:50 pm Moscow time.
Dividends relating to the international securities are set in the currency of the issuer (in USD for US securities and so forth). All shares of international companies admitted to trading on Moscow Exchange are available to investors, including individuals, in roubles and in the currency of the primary listing, primarily US dollars.
National Clearing Centre (NCC, part of Moscow Exchange Group) accepts securities of international companies as collateral for trades made on Moscow Exchange markets.
Moreover, individual investors can submit Form W-8 to establish eligibility for reduction of or exemption from tax on dividend income from U.S. securities.
FX market turnover of $424 billion in December 2021
Moscow Exchange is making a phased roll out of international securities. In December 2021, the Russian exchange added another 80 stocks, including Nasdaq, Airbnb, Domino’s Pizza, Gartner, and Motorola.
The strategic play aims to address demand from banks, brokers, asset managers, and their clients, which has led the company to also extended the hours during which stocks can be traded from this winter in a move aimed at attracting a greater number of investors.
MOEX also said it would open the FX auction from December to be held from 6:50am to 7:00am for all spot instruments. The exchange already started trading foreign currency, gold and derivatives three hours earlier from March 1.
In regard to FX trading, MOEX’s total FX market turnover edged higher to RUB 31.9 trillion ($424 billion) in December, up 22 percent month-over-month from the RUB 26.1 trillion ($350 billion) exchanged hands in November 2021.
Compared with volumes from the same month a year earlier, this figure was down 2.3 percent from RUB 32.8 trillion in December 2020 but virtually unchanged in dollar terms.
The average daily volumes in December 2021 reached RUB 1.25 trillion ($17 billion), up from RUB 1.24 trillion ($16.8 billion) in the prior month, Moex said in a statement. Year-over-year, the ADV figure was down six percent from RUB 1.31 trillion in 2020.
Additionally, December 2021’s turnover included spot trades of RUB 9.5 trillion and swap trades coming in at RUB 22.4 trillion.
MOEX, which runs one of the largest FX trading platforms, revealed earlier it raised its stake in BierbaumPro AG, whose main asset is the OTC FX platform NTPro. The transaction increases MOEX’s ownership from 29.5% to 95%.
