Retail investors – individuals – have returned to purchasing Russian shares, as follows from the January review (.pdf) risks of financial markets of the Bank of Russia. It states that the share of retail investors in the market increased from 73% to 75% compared to December, and in terms of the volume of purchases on the stock market they took second place, purchasing securities worth 10.4 billion rubles. This is less than that of systemically important credit institutions (12.2 billion), and less than the average for 2023 – then individuals bought an average of 15.7 billion rubles worth of shares each month. However, compared to the failure of December 2023, when individuals bought shares worth 0.5 billion rubles, the volume of purchases increased 20 times. Analysts explained the December data by the high key rate and the fact that, other things being equal, it is safer to keep money “under the pillow.”