Cbank: Foreigners sell 161 bln rbl of Russian OFZ bonds in March

MOSCOW, Apr 15 (PRIME) -- The net outflow of foreign investors from Russia’s OFZ federal bonds amounted to 161 billion rubles in March, as seen by PRIME in the materials of the central bank on Wednesday.

"Foreign investors have not sold OFZs for quite a long time amid creeping coronavirus pandemic but cancellation of an OPEC plus deal triggered a decrease of interest to the Russian securities and they have begun to cut the investment by 12–23 billion rubles a day since March 11 (according to the trading data),” the central bank said.

The Finance Ministry cancelled OFZ auctions in March due to an unstable market situation. As a result, January–March placement amounted to 501.3 billion rubles compared to a borrowing plan of 600 billion rubles.

“The outflow narrowed to 2–10 billion rubles by the end of the month switching to purchases in the last two trading days of 1.2 billion rubles and 4.6 billion rubles," the bank said.

(73.3150 – U.S. $1)

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