Moscow Exchange Posts First-Week Post-IPO Loss

Shares of newly minted Muscovite IPO Moscow Exchange, now a "stock" itself following its Feb. 15 initial public offering, closed Friday at 54.5 Russian rubles per share. The shares have lost 0.9% of their value since the IPO.

The company's full name is "OJSC Moscow Exchange MICEX-RTS" but is more commonly known simply as the Moscow Exchange. It is Russia's largest stock and fixed-income exchange by volume. Its IPO, which rolled out with the ticker symbol "MOEX," was Russia's largest in deal size since 2007, valued at 15 billion rubles.

In a statement at the time of the IPO, company Chief Executive Officer Alexander Afanasiev noted: "Moscow Exchange's IPO, the largest ever solely on a Russian exchange platform, marks a major step forward in its development as well as the future growth prospects of the Russian financial market. The fact that the offering was oversubscribed demonstrates a vote of confidence in Russian listed equities and is genuine recognition of the recent initiatives to develop Russia's capital market infrastructure."

Despite the week's decline, Moscow Exchange has a market cap of 125.8 billion ($4.2 billion). That's approximately $1 billion less than the market cap of America's Nasdaq OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ  ) , and a bit less than half the market cap of NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX  ) .