Trading of Russian corporate bonds soared to its highest levels in at least two years this month, despite the U.S. along with allies put sanctions on Moscow to restrict demand for its assets.
The average daily trading volume for dollar-denominated Russian corporate bonds rose to a level last seen in March 2020. The average trading volume for this month, as of March 14, was $258 million, compared with $96 million in the same month last year, according to data from MarketAxess as reported by Bloomberg
Surprisingly, trading activity of Russian corporate debt spiked even with high uncertainties in the market whether these companies would eventually be able to service debt.
Big Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have been capitalizing this opportunity to buy these beaten down corporate bonds tied to Russia as hedge fund looks to buy in “cheap”.