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Expensive Service Expands Trading Options
As they prepare to shorten trading sessions on Russian stock exchanges, investment companies are offering their clients new services to expand their trading possibilities. Internet brokers will offer the opportunity to trade in depositary notes on Russian stocks on international markets. The new service will have a high cost, however, so demand for it may be limited.
Trading on Russian exchanges will stop at 6:00 p.m. beginning March 26. BrokerCreditService has decided to offer its clients service to trade the stocks of Russian issuers while the exchanges are closed. Direct access to Western stock exchanges is already possible through the same trading terminal as its clients work on MICEX on and on the client's unified brokerage account. Thus, the company's clients can trade in depositary notes (ADR/GDR) on Russian stock on the LSE, NYSE and NASDAQ and in the stock of foreign issuers.
The service will be costly. The client will have to have at least $50,000 in his account to access Western markets, while only 5000 rubles is needed in the account to work on MICEX. BCS will take a 0.1-percent commission on transactions, which is the top price on the Russian market (0.045-0.1 percent). In addition, the client will pay $55 per month to receive information on Western stock prices in real time. Demand for the service is expected to be low. Industry analysts say that the costs will be prohibitive for individual investors.
The Otkrytie brokerage house is planning a service and Finam sales chief Mikhail Pospelov said that all Internet brokers will soon offer that type of service. Finam plans to make quotes on the 12 most popular stocks available at night to its clients. The Federal Financial Markets Service says that about 250,000 investment company clients work on Russian stock exchanges over the Internet. Pospelov estimated that 10 percent of those clients may be interested in nighttime trading. BCS vice president Yury Mintsev estimated their number at about 10,000.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 22, 2007
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