Moreover, Poland has a diverse investor base– it has big institutions that have a high allocation to domestic equities and a large retail investor base. Pension funds in Poland have an average 32% allocation to Polish equities compared with less than 1% to foreign equities, notes Krunic. Poland also has some post-trade advantages over Russia because its central securities depository acts as a single source of information about corporate actions.
Meanwhile, the $2.5 billion secondary public offering of Halkbank in November indicates the potential of the Turkish market. Turkey has also announced new regulations that will boost TurkDex and there is an expectation that the Istanbul stock exchange will merge with TurkDex. "The first quarter of 2013 will also see the launch of a new options market in Turkey," says Krunic. "Other developments include the introduction of new software that will allow different securities to be traded on a single platform, with the Istanbul exchange managing all related collateral."
Andrei Shemetov, deputy chief executive at Moscow Exchange, says that localfinancial markets across CEE are at varying stages of development in their efficiency, openness and attractiveness to investors. "Moscow Exchange is working hard to ensure that it is a leader on all these counts," he says.