Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 16 / Trend /
The turnover of the Azerbaijan's securities market increased by 6% in 2012, reaching 9.422 billion Manat, a report of the country's State Committee for Securities (SCS) on last year's results published on its website on Wednesday said.
"The stock market's activity was continued in 2012 against the background of the policy on maintaining one-digit inflation and growth in financing from the capital markets" - the report says. "As a result, from January-November 2012, stock market turnover accounted for 37% of GDP, or 5% points higher than in the same period of 2011".
The government securities market grew by 20% to 8.1 billion Manat last year. Sterilization transactions performed as functions of the Azerbaijani Central Bank to preserve price stability had an impact on transaction dynamics through note and accompanying repo transactions.
Last year, the primary market for note trading rose by 34%, while the secondary market grew by 17 times. In general, the market grew 63%, surpassing one billion Manat. Along with this, the volume of repo-transactions with notes hit 6.8 billion Manat, increasing by 19%.
"Despite the conservative borrowing policy the Finance Ministry pursued starting at the beginning of last year, this trend changed in the second half of the year, resulting in 62.5% growth in drawings attracted by the state between July and December compared to the same period in 2011. In general, the market grew by 50.6%, reaching 130.4 million Manat", the committee's report said.
During the year, the volume of transactions with the Finance Ministry's bonds declined by 40%, up to 167.45 million manat.
According to the report, the market for private companies' shares revived. Thus, in 2012, the amount of drawing the funds from the stock market by private companies increased by 24.4% to 186.4 million manat.
"The growth of activity in the secondary stock market gave rise to a doubling of this market, however, the distribution of shares of the large state-owned enterprise to the amount of 824.6 million Manat (80% of the stock market) at the end of 2011, in general, led to a relative decline in the stock market last year by 42% to 599.3 million Manat.
During the reporting period, a reduction in the volume of transactions with the bonds of the Azerbaijan Mortgage Fund had a negative impact on the corporate bond market. These transactions make up a large part of the primary market, and are distinguished by high liquidity in the secondary market. According to the report, in 2012 the volume of issued mortgage bonds fell by 12.5%, the primary market fell by 53%, and the secondary market fell by 42%. As a result, the volume of transactions in the primary market for corporate bonds fell by 38%, the secondary market fell by 31%, and in general, this segment of the market declined by 35% to 729.4 million manat.
The official exchange rate is 0.7849 AZN/USD on Jan. 16.