Russia's Finance Ministry suspending federal bond auctions to stabilize market situation - press release

MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) - Russia's Finance Ministry has suspended auctions of federal loan bonds (OFZ) in order to stabilize the market situation, the ministry said in a press release.

The ministry intends to release a further announcement regarding the resumption of auctions, according to the press release.

The ministry had earlier decided not to go ahead with OFZ auctions on June 24 and July 8 for the same reason.

The market rose moderately on the latest such decision: the RGBI price index, which closed the main session on the Moscow Exchange at 110.45, down 0.4% from Friday's closing level, managed to climb as the evening session started, and was up 0.37% at 111.3 by 7:20 p.m..

The MinFin plans to borrow about 1.5 trillion rubles through OFZ placements this quarter on 14 auction days, including five in each of July and September and four in August. Three of the July days have now gone with just 9.1 billion rubles of bonds sold on just one of them, on July 1.

The MinFin decided last week not to offer fixed yield OFZ-PD bonds last week so as not to upset a secondary market that has been in a protracted decline. It offered floating rate bonds for the first time since November 2025 but no bids were received at acceptable prices.