Trading expansion in commodity markets continued: 2015 outcomes

The total trading volume in the commodity exchange market in 2015 expanded by over 12% and totalled 644 billion rubles, according to the data contained in the Russian Commodity Market Survey posted on the Bank of Russia website.

Commodity markets have been showing a trend towards growing volumes throughout 2015.

Petrochemicals accounted for 70% of the total trading, while the average pace of expansion equalled 15%, slowing down only in 2015 Q4. In the course of the year, the exchange to over-the-counter (OTC)-traded spread in the price of Regular-92 petrol was down from с 10% to 2%, while Euro-95 entered negative territory, in a sign of normalisation in the exchange to OTC prices correlation, the survey finds. By comparison, petrochemicals in the exchanging market totalled in Q4 as much as 11% of the whole trading volume and 89% of OTC. By the year-end, the document says, independent producers in the OTC petrochemicals market grew in share from 11% in Q1 to 17% in Q4, suggesting an upsurge in competition.

Last October, trading volumes of natural gas beat their monthly record of 4.5 billion rubles, remaining, however, within 8.5 billion rubles as a result in Q4. The annual volume of natural gas traded was 21 billion rubles.

The exchanging market for crude shrank for the past three quarters. Q4 volumes, having fallen by 45% on the preceding quarter, totalled 1.3 billion rubles.

The review also notes that the volume of trading in settlement futures for exchange commodity in 2015 amounted to 1,951 billion rubles, with BRENT crude futures accounting for 83% of the volume.