Foreign currency trading hikes

According to BICEX's PR office, the joint-stock merchant banks, International Bank of Azerbaijan, Bank of Baku, Tekhnikabank, Unibank and CIBANK have become leaders in the share of transactions in the overall trading volume of the currency market section.

In total, 23 banks took part in the trades for US dollar in March 2006. Last month, 40 trade sessions were conducted, and 90 deals were closed in the BEST (Bourse E-system of trades). The volume of dollar trades in the BICEX totaled AZN 82 million 37 thousand or USD 91.094 million. The volume of euro deals totaled AZN 5.500 AZN. In comparison with the previous month, volume of trades rose as much as $21.786 million or 34.5 percent. In January-April 2006, the volume of foreign currency trading made up 247.420 million manats, down by 15.21% on the same period last year.

Manat exchange rate strengthened 0,59% vs US dollar (from AZN 0.9090 to 0.9036). AZN average weighted rate against USD made up 0.9061 in April whereas it was 0.9099 in March. As a whole, manat market rate has strengthened 6.29% vs USD over a year, AzerTAg reports.