Futures & Options On The RTS Stock Exchange: April 2005 Monthly Data

In April 2005 total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on the RTS) reached 26.7 billion rubles and 3.1 million contracts. Total open interest as of April 29th, 2005, increased by 15% in rubles and 16% in contracts and reached 15.06 billion rubles and 1 762,3 million contracts.

On April 28 th , 2005, the total number of open positions reached the all-time record of 15 075 million rubles sand 1 762,9 thousand contracts.

The top selling contracts in April were "RAO UES of Russia" futures contract (50% of total trading volume), "LUKOil" futures contract (16%) and futures on "RAO UES of Russia" futures contract (12%) and options on futures on "RAO UES of Russia"

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 8 years. RTS acts as the trading system and the clearinghouse on the integrated market. 86 companies headquartered in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Abakan are the registered members of FORTS. They trade 8 futures contracts and 4 options.