YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. More than 19 billion drams worth transactions were effected at Armenia’s Securities Exchange in the first quarter of 2019, down 4.1 percent from the same time span of 2018, the National Statistical Committee (NSC) said.

It said the amount of transactions with government bonds slashed by 46.1% to 6.5 billion drams, while the amount of transactions with corporate bonds surged by 50.2% to 9 billion drams. Also, the amount of transactions with shares fell by 33.8% to about 437 million drams and the amount of transactions with repo nearly doubled to 3.9 billion drams.

Overall, some 714 transactions were made at the Securities Exchange in the first quarter of 2019, up from 500 transactions effected in the same period of 2018.

According to the NSC, 22 companies were listed in the Securities Exchange at the end of the first quarter. There are 12 organizations and 17 banks in the country allowed to provide investment services.

Armenia Securities Exchange or "AMX" , formerly "NASDAQ OMX Armenia", is the only stock exchange currently operating in Armenia. The stock exchange began operations in 2001 as a self-regulatory organization founded by the exchange members. In November 2007, pursuant to relevant amendments in the legislation covering the local securities market, it was demutualized and became an open joint-stock company.

The state regulatory authority for the stock exchange and the Armenian securities market is the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA). Instruments currently traded on AMX include stocks, corporate bonds, government bonds, currency, SWAP and REPO (repurchase agreements) on corporate securities. Since 1995, the Armenian Stock Exchange has been a member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges. The headquarters of the Federation is located in Yerevan. ($1 – 479.79 drams).--0--