FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2013
NASDAQ OMX ARMENIA
The year of 2012 at NASDAQ OMX Armenia
was notable by expanding the range of
instruments, offered to the market.
Konstantin Saroyan
Chief Executive Officer
The year of 2012 at NASDAQ OMX Armenia
was notable by expanding the range of
instruments, offered to the market. In
November, 2012 NASDAQ OMX Armenia
launched new credit contracts market, where
credit contracts with maturity of 7 days will
be traded. This is another step towards
expanding our offering to the market with the
aim to pioneer development of new financial
instruments. Now we support trading and
clearing in equities, corporate and government
bonds, foreign exchange, repo contracts,
overnight credit resources and credit contracts.
In 2012 NASDAQ OMX Armenia also introduced
opportunity for a new instrument, foreign
currency bonds (FX bonds) - corporate bonds,
issued by local companies, but nominated
and traded in foreign currency. Introduction of
new instrument aimed at increasing investment
and capital raising alternatives for public and
Armenian companies, respectively, as well as
to stimulate foreign investments to Armenian
securities market.
In 2012 stock market preserved positive
growth trend with value traded reaching up to
US$ 1.02 mln, almost doubling the previous
year’s volumes. Market capitalization as of
year end reached US$ 132.1 mln, slightly
decreasing over the same of 2011. Corporate
bonds market saw 41% reduction in volumes
with total value amounting to US$ 1.03 mln.
REPO trading also saw 6.6 times reduction of
value traded to US$ 929 thsnd. Government
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
NASDAQ OMX Armenia (formerly Armenian
Stock Exchange, Armex, renamed on 27
January 2009) is the only stock exchange
currently operating in Armenia. Armex was
the successor of the Association of Securities
Market Participants and was initially registered
on 13 February 2001, as a self-regulatory
organization. In November 2007, according to
the newly adopted “Law on Securities Market”,
Armex was reorganized into an open joint stock
company.
Until 1 January 2006, Securities Commission
of RA was the competent state authority to
regulate the activities of capital market including
the stock exchange in Armenia. However, with
the enactment of a new law introducing unified
regulatory authority for the financial market,
the regulatory and supervisory powers of the
Commission were transferred to the CBA.
bonds market was rather active in 2012 with
value traded of US$ 10.4 mln. Structure of
government bonds trading also changed this
year: 11% fell to the share of trading in short-
term government bonds, 24% - in long-term
government bonds and 64% - in mid-term
government bonds. Value traded in foreign
currency market was US$ 752mln, exceeding
the previous year’s volumes by 7%. Credit
resources market saw value traded of US$
15.1 mln in 2012. This year average monthly
value traded amounted to US$ 1.3 mln, 2.2
times exceeding the same of the previous year.
Weighted average rate of credit resources
varied within maximum of 11.3% and minimum
of 4%.
NASDAQ OMX Armenia was also active in
organizing various events, focusing on major
stakeholders - investment companies and
banks, listed companies, journalists - and
aimed at sharing international expertise and
implementing state-of-the-art standards of
respective activities in Armenia.
In October, 2012 NASDAQ OMX Armenia
and Central Depository of Armenia hosted an
important regional Forum - the 1st Armenian-
Georgian Financial Markets Forum, which
attracted 57 officials from over 30 companies,
operating in financial sectors of Armenia
and Georgia, including representatives
of international organizations. The Forum
covered recent developments in Armenian and
Georgian financial systems, features of each
Since 15 November 2005, foreign currency
trading was introduced on Armex, which proved
to be in demand: volumes of FX trading to date
greatly exceed those of other instruments. On
14 December 2005, the first publicly traded
corporate bonds were listed at Armex. In
early 2008 government bonds trading was
launched, as well as status of market-maker
for government bonds was introduced. By the
end of 2008, Armex introduced new market for
REPO (repurchase agreements), as well as a
mechanism for manual trades.
In 2011 NASDAQ OMX Armenia had the first
ever securities offering via the stock exchange
IPO system, which was an importaint step
towards servicing further IPOs at the Exchange.
In April, 2010 NASDAQ OMX introduced new
market for credit resources trading, providing
exchange platform for interbank credits, a large
segment of the Armenian financial market, later
market’s infrastructure and regulatory issues,
Armenian pension reform and its expected
impact on capital markets. Forum participants
also discussed issues and ways of mutual
cooperation, noting that financial sectors of
both countries should be developed jointly,
based on new technological solutions.
Being the full owner of the Central Depository
of Armenia, NASDAQ OMX Armenia kept
concentrating on improving the depository
and clearing services - primarily through
preparing new model of depository services
to be launched in early 2013. The expected
launch of new second pillar pension system will
boost the activity in the capital market, so the
Depository worked closely with the Government
of Armenia and the Central Bank of Armenia to
create necessary preconditions for introducing
the reform and servicing pension accounts and
custodian information system.
NASDAQ OMX Armenia will continue to be
proactive in bringing innovative technological
solutions to the Exchange and the Depository
and enhancing its relations with the capital
market stakeholders, thus realizing its primary
objective - to maintain a fair and effective
marketplace where good companies can
raise capital and where investors can make
well-informed decisions while being properly
protected.
in 2012 NASDAQ OMX Armenia introduced
credit contracts market, which a unique setup
that combines anonymous automatch trading
and centralized collateral management. Along
with overnight credit resources, it provides
opportunities for more efficient and flexible
asset management, as well as contributes to fair
and transparent pricing of credit instruments in
the market.
NASDAQ OMX Armenia is currently part of
the NASDAQ OMX Group. In November 2007
members of CDA and Armex transferred their
shares to the CBA, and OMX Group acquired
100% thereof. After in late February 2008,
NASDAQ completed its combination with OMX,
NASDAQ OMX Armenia became an entity fully
owned by NASDAQ OMX. On 5 June 2009,
NASDAQ OMX Armenia became the owner of
the 100% of the shares of the Central Depository
of Armenia.
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