Hryvnia stable, market eyes today's FX auction

Макроэкономика 23.09.2014 The FX market was rather calm yesterday as the FX rate marginally changed with the NBU weighted average rate down 0.4% from the previous close. Bloomberg reported the rate at 14.1750/USD, or 1.56% up from Friday's close, on volume of US$214m. Trading was tempered by anticipated news of new NBU regulations released yesterday, as follows: (1) cash purchases of FX by private individuals are limited to a daily equivalent of 3,000 hryvnias (or US$220) and (2) the surrender requirement was lowered from 100% to 75%. The market also was expecting news of another FX auction set for today at which the NBU said it would offer US$200m, a much higher volume than the total of US$44m which was sold at the previous auction held last Thursday.