Futures And Options Market On Russian Trading System: Weekly Market Information

For the week of July 29th - August 2nd, 2002, the total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on RTS) reached 541 thousand contracts or 1 769 million rubles in underlying value. 12 808 trades were executed. The previous week showed 13 770 trades and 529 thousand contracts with an underlying value of 1 831 million rubles.

FORTS members executed 12 476 trades in futures contracts, down from 13 296 trades the week before. Futures contracts trading volume changed to 534 thousand contracts and 1 744 million rubles, from the previous week's 522.7 thousand contracts and 1 872.4 million rubles.

The number of trades executed in options decreased to 332 from 474 last week. FORTS options trading volume climbed 17% to 25.7 million rubles. The increase in contracts amounted to 13% (7 356 contracts versus 6 526).

FORTS, a unified derivatives' market operating since September 19, 2001, is based on trading and settlement technologies and software that were implemented at and have been successfully used by St. Petersburg Stock Exchange for 7 years. RTS acts as the trading system and the clearinghouse on the integrated market. 71 companies headquartered in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Abakan are FORTS registered members. They trade 7 futures contracts and 2 options.