Russia's central bank says record Q3 flow of retail investors into assets

MOSCOW: Investment in Russian brokerage accounts rose by a record 1.3 trillion roubles ($17.3 billion) in the third quarter to 12.7 trillion roubles, the central bank said on Thursday, a trend driven by record low interest rates and COVID-19.

The bank said 1.6 million individuals opened brokerage accounts from July-Sept alone, a record quarterly rise.

"We see huge interest from investors in the stock market," said Alexander Ivanov, head of one of the central bank's analytics departments.

"As of Sept. 30 more than 7.6 million brokerage accounts had been opened, of which 3.4 million were opened by investors in 2020."

After a three-year drought, several Russian companies have staged initial public offerings this year, most recently online retailer Ozon, which raised almost $1 billion from its New York share listing on Tuesday.

Homebuilder Samolet went public in October and shipping giant Sovcomflot raised about $550 million earlier that month.

Russian stock markets surged to multi-month highs on Thursday, boosted by relatively high oil prices and optimism that vaccines against COVID-19 could be ready sooner than expected.

By 0843 GMT, the dollar-denominated RTS index was up 0.4pc to 1,306.5 points, earlier reaching its best since Aug. 19.

The rouble-based MOEX Russian index was 0.1pc higher at 3,136.2 points, a more than nine-month high.