U.S. dollar market of Kazakhstan: day results

/IRBIS, Oct.24, 00/ - Following is the table of major indicators of Kazakhstan market for U.S. dollar (more than 98% of country's all currency market). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trades in U.S. dollars at Kazakhstan stock exchange (KASE) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instrument USD TOD USD TOD USD TOM USD SPOT Session Main Additional. Evening Evening Time of the trades (AST) 10:15a-11:00a 11:30a-3:30p 2:00p-6:00p 2:00p-6:00p Weighted average rate 142.64 (+0.02) Not shown - - Volume of session (mln) 1.830(-1.960) 1.190(-0.170) 0 0 Bid 142.65 142.71 - - Offer 142.66 142.74 - - Number of participants 17 9 0 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Indicative U.S. dollar quotations on interbank over-the-counter market in information system REUTERS at closing of KASE sessions (disregarding settlement dates) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bid 142.63 142.66 142.65 Offer 142.68 142.71 142.70 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: Best bid and offer prices at closing of the trades are shown as the Exchange quotations. By indicative interbank quotations of the US dollar in REUTERS information system, tenge lost 7 points on bid and 6 points on offer of the American currency in comparison with previous day closing. All first half of the day went on with low activity of the participants of the currency market. Traders spent this portion of the time in search for an optimal price of the U.S. dollar that would correspond to current market situation. The quotations of the American currency began to grow only in the afternoon, increasing by 10 points at once within a couple of hours. The volumes of the deals at the day session of the Exchange grew relative to those of previous day and almost reached the volume of the main trades. As the evening approached, the quotations of the dollar stabilized on the over- the-counter market and even "subsided" slightly. However, the firming of the tenge against the dollar was not significant during the last working hours of the market, and resulting change during the day time was in favor of the U.S. dollar. In the opinions of IRBIS analysts, livening up of the market during the day time was due to an absence of noticeable supply of dollars, as it was expected, as well as very "tough" cut-off of the Ministry of Finance at the offering of MEOKAM-24: the issuer took only KZT40 mln when total bids reached as much as KZT1.5 bln. Considering the fact that no GB offering auctions are planned on October 25, the banks tried to invest their free money into dollars. However, due to a limited demand, initial trend did not any support further on. Current short-term liquidity of the banks, based on the rates of the shortest interbank money, remains very high. With offer rates at 2.5% APR, demand went as low as 0.2% APR today. In repo sector of the KASE borrowing rates for 2 days did not exceed 2.14% APR. taking into account the behaviors of the market indicators, it should be assumed that the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the tenge will be inclined to grow at Thursday trades.