Retail investors increased their investments on the Moscow Exchange to 142.9 billion rubles in July.
July 2026 became a landmark month for the Russian stock market: retail investors directed 142.9 billion rubles to the Moscow Exchange. This is not just a number — it is a marker of sustained retail interest in fixed-income instruments, which continues to reshape the demand structure.
The key driver is bonds. Individuals invested 100.9 billion rubles in debt securities, accounting for more than 70% of the total inflow. Equities attracted 25.1 billion rubles, showing a 1.9-fold increase year-on-year, while mutual funds received 16.8 billion rubles — 9.8% more than in July 2025.
Investment structure and investor behavior
This distribution confirms the trend: retail investors are voting for predictability. Amid equity market volatility, investors prefer bonds with clear coupon income. This is not a flight from risk, but rather a deliberate diversification — the share of qualified investors among active traders remains high.
The number of retail investors with brokerage accounts reached 42.2 million people, increasing by 343.5 thousand over the month. More than 80.8 million accounts have already been opened. Over 3.1 million people executed trades, of which 353.5 thousand were qualified investors with access to complex instruments.
The share of individuals in equity trading volume stood at 63.3%, in the derivatives market at 50.9%, and in bonds at 14.5%. This indicates that retail investors are increasingly influencing pricing, especially in the equity segment, where the sentiment of small participants can outweigh the actions of institutional players.
IIAs and regional dynamics
The number of individual investment accounts (IIAs) grew to 6.4 million. Their monthly turnover reached 340.4 billion rubles, with 59% coming from equity trades, 24% from fund units, and 17% from bonds.
The geography of IIA openings is predictable: Moscow leads with 648.1 thousand accounts, followed by the Moscow region (378.5 thousand) and St. Petersburg (318.5 thousand). The top ten also includes Krasnodar Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Rostov, Chelyabinsk, and Samara Oblasts. This mirrors business activity: capital regions maintain dominance, but the periphery is gradually catching up.
In parallel, the exchange continues its modernization: the implementation of AI systems to detect manipulation and the development of new areas, including fixings for foreign securities and promising cryptocurrency trading, are steps toward greater transparency and attracting a new audience.
My view: the inflow into bonds is not a temporary measure but a structural shift. As long as rates remain high, retail investors will stay focused on capital protection. However, the growth of the retail share in equities to 63% creates risks of increased volatility — the market is becoming more sensitive to the news flow and crowd sentiment. Investors should take this into account when building their strategies.