U.S. dollar market of Kazakhstan: day results

/IRBIS, Jan 16, 01/ - 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 trades (AST) 10:15a-11:00a 11:30a-3:30p 2:00p-6:00p 2:00p-6:00p Weighted average rate 145.15(-0.13) NA - - Volume of session (mln) 8.695(+5.820) 1.360(-1.260) 0 0 Bid 145.14 145.03 *144.99 - Offer 145.16 145.06 *145.10 - Number of participants 18 11 1 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. dollar quotations on interbank over-the-counter market in information system REUTERS at closing of KASE sessions (disregarding settlement dates) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bid 145.12 145.01 144.98 Offer 145.20 145.10 145.08 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: Best bid and offer prices at closing of the trades are shown as the Exchange quotations. In case of absence those in the KASE trade system the last bids are shown, which are marked with an asterisk (in this table - at 3:55PM). By indicative interbank quotations of the US dollar in REUTERS information system, tenge gained 28 points on ask bid and 23 points on offer bid of the American currency in comparison with previous day closing. Today, as it happened yesterday, the market of the dollar in Kazakhstan was formed under the influence of limited liquidity of the second tier banks in tenge. Indicative rates of the shortest money varied from 10-15% APR on demand and 20-21% APR on supply side. Real borrowing rates in tenge in repo sector of the KASE grew up to 8.02-20.01% APR for one day with the volumes exceeding KZT1 bln. One week KIMEAN rates hiked from 5.03 to 7.13% APR. The Ministry of Finance has faced with small and "tough" demand at his MEOKAM-24 offering. Therefore, tenge showed a great potential towards the growth at the morning session of the KASE. Both the banks and their clients were selling the American currency in order to receive the money, necessary to make their budgetary payments. The IRBIS specialists do not exclude that exporters earnings were sold at the Exchange today. During the day session of the KASE the dollar continued its fall down to KZT145.05 per unit at closing of the trades. Over-the-counter bids of the dollar with the next day payment terms kept falling, ask bids reaching KZT144.98 by the closing of the market. At the same time, it should be noted that the market of the dollar is far from a collapse. Big repayment volume of GB at the end of the week serves as kind of stability guarantee for the American currency, as well as the attitude of the National Bank, which is not interested in excessive firming of the tenge. Therefore, the banks sell the dollar in strictly limited quantities, which are likely to be determined by the clients' orders. The banks themselves prefer to maintain their liquidity by making deals on the money market, though borrowing rates remain high. The repayment of the notes by the National Bank for KZT560.6 mln today, and the support the tenge received at the morning trades of the KASE in the morning, allowed the BST not to shorten their currency positions too much. Today 4 deals that were opened in repo sector of the KASE yesterday were prolonged till tomorrow. It may indicate that by the evening the liquidity of the banks seemed better than they predicted by themselves yesterday. Based on the facts mentioned above, as well as by taking into consideration the GB repayments to be made on Wednesday and the need to make the payments for MEKAM purchased during the week in the afternoon, IRBIS specialists came to a conclusion, that at the morning session of the KASE tomorrow the supply of dollars will prevail the demand again with all the consequences stemming from this. Closing parameters of the market on Tuesday also indicate that the tenge will likely firm. However, it is possible that Wednesday will become the last day for the dollar to fall. There are many reasons for the IRBIS specialists to think so. First, it is the GB repayment schedule, the National Bank's attitude, but the most important is the fact that no matter how the signals were strong, the banks have not opened short positions in dollars yet.