Volumes of open commodities trading grow 29% in 2016

The volumes of commodities trading on the exchange totalled 751 billion rubles for the year 2016, according to a Bank of Russia-issued 2016 commodities market review. This growth was driven by liquidity increased across all commodity groups.

Alongside the petroleum product market, which gained 12% to total 480 billion rubles, substantial contribution to the 2016 results came from the gas and precious metals markets.  The volumes of natural gas and precious metals trading were up 121% and 32% respectively. Advanced marketplace trading practices are known to promote fair pricing for core commodities and ensure transparency in procurement procedures.

In late 2016, trading of supply contracts for Urals became open to non-residents. The first several non-resident companies, accredited with the exchange house, are ready to enter into trading transactions. Exchange trading in oil export contracts is expected to help bring a direct Urals quote onto the markets; as liquidity grows, this Russian price quotation may well rise to global prominence as a widely recognised benchmark.

Exchange dealings in nondeliverable commodity futures rose 4.5 times for the year 2016 to a total of 8,796 billion rubles, with Brent futures accounting for 87% of this amount.

Over-the-counter transactions registered in 2016 were also up to 20.8 trillion rubles, having grown roughly threefold relative to 2015. The growth is explained by newly registered supply contracts for natural gas, liquefied hydrocarbon gases and oil.