The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) resumes the purchase of gold from banks
Starting from March 28th, the CBR buys gold from local banks. The resumption of purchases was announced after the UK expanded sanctions on a number of Russian banks. The purchase price is fixed until June 30 and is RUB 5000 (~USD 52) per 1 gram of gold, which is lower than the current market price.
The regulator is ready to buy only pure gold, which accounts a third of all gold produced in Russia, or USD 6 billion. For comparison, the CBR’s gold reserves are around USD 130 billion.
In our opinion, this measure looks like one of the measures to provide rouble liquidity to gold holders.
Moscow Exchange expanded trading to all stocks and bonds
On March 28, all Russian stocks, as well as corporate and municipal bonds, became available for trading on the Moscow Exchange. For residents only. During the day, the RTS index declined by 0.7% in USD terms.
Authors: Konstantin Ilinskiy, Senior Portfolio Manager, Egor Kiselev, Head of International Business & Investment Marketing, Marina Tsutskiridze, Investment Specialist