Interbank demand for dollar strengthens: currency market review
On the interbank currency market on Monday, September 21, demand for foreign currency slightly exceeded supply, but no sharp movements in the dollar exchange rate were observed.
As of 11:53 in the Bloomberg trading system, the volume of buy orders was about $5.5 million, while sell orders were $5 million.
Trading began with a noticeably wider spread: the difference between dollar buy and sell quotes at the start reached about 15 kopecks, and actual deals were initially almost absent.
As the morning progressed, the market became significantly tighter. Around 10:26, dollar quotes in Bloomberg narrowed to 44.71-44.73 UAH. At the same time, from the very opening of trading, buy orders prevailed over supply.
On the cash market, there are also no significant fluctuations. In Kyiv, large dollar exchange operations are taking place in the range of 44.75-44.90 UAH, and euro in the range of 51.80-52.00 UAH. Current quotes indicate a relative balance between buyers and sellers in the cash segment.
On the global currency market, the dollar is trading with a slight advantage against the euro at the start of the week. The EUR/USD pair is trading near $1.1475 per euro, with the European currency remaining below the psychologically important $1.15 level. On Monday, the pair moved in a narrow range of about $1.1471-1.1486 without sharp fluctuations.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which reflects its rate against a basket of major world currencies, is trading near 100 points and slightly rises at the start of trading. Thus, the global market also shows no significant movement: the dollar retains relatively strong positions, and the euro, after last week's decline, is trying to stabilize. At the beginning of September, EUR/USD was trading above $1.16, so over the past few weeks the European currency has noticeably weakened against the dollar.
The National Bank continues to compensate for the structural currency deficit on the interbank market through its interventions. Last week, the regulator sold $1.232 billion and did not purchase currency. At the same time, the detailed dynamics of NBU interventions already show consistently high selling volumes in recent weeks.
Thus, at the start of the new trading week, the situation remains relatively calm both on the Ukrainian and global currency markets. On the interbank market, demand for dollar slightly exceeds supply, but quotes remain in a narrow range, while on the international market the euro is trading near $1.15.
