On March 15, 2011 within the framework of the joint project with RTS Group, Saint Petersburg Exchange will start trading in a new instrument, a cash-settled futures contract on wheat. The contract will be quoted in rubles per ton with settlements in March, May, July, September and December. The code of the contract in the trading system is (GR). The on-exchange indicator on wheat calculated on the basis of a price of Wheat futures traded on CBOT (the market of CME Group) will be used as a settlement price for the contract.
The launch of the contract is part of a joint activity of RTS Group and OJSC Saint Petersburg Exchange. The latter will act as an organizer of trading, RTS Clearing Center and RTS Settlement Chamber will be responsible for clearing and settlements respectively.
Futures on wheat will interest large agricultural companies and traders of agricultural products wishing to hedge their price risks. In addition, the contract will provide FORTS market participants with a new opportunity to conduct arbitrage and speculative transactions.
The grain market is marked with a high level of volatility arisen from the fundamental economic factors, supply and demand balance on the global market as well as supply from institutional investors’, comments Evgeny Serdyukov, Director of the Futures & Options Market at OJSC RTS, ‘the new instrument will allow not only to improve the efficiency of operations on the market for companies of real sector of economy, but to diversify trading strategies for private customers".
