Futures & Options On The RTS Stock Exchange Derivatives Market

For the week of August 16th – August 20th, 2004, total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on the RTS) increased by 49% in rubles and 54% in contracts and reached 5 982 million rubles and 882 thousand contracts. Total open interest as of August 20th, 2004, increased by 6% in rubles and 8% in contracts and equaled 6 902 million rubles and 942 thousand contracts.

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. 84 companies from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Samara, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Abakan FORTS participants trade 8 futures contracts and 3 options.