RTS 2007 Main Results

2007 became a significant stage of qualitative development for RTS and the year of further strengthening of RTS positions on the Russian stock market. Trading volume on all RTS Group markets grew sixfold and reached a record value of 687,4 bln dollars. The Exchange actively worked over creation of new products and improvement of services, which offer a lot of additional opportunities to participants and issuers and increase development efficiency of the Russian stock market on the whole.

At the beginning of the year RTS launched a trading floor for mid-sized and small-sized companies - RTS START. For the end of the year 5 securities joined RTS START. Among them securities of PJSC "ARMADA", which carried out IPO on July 31st. 80% of additional issue of securities volume was placed through RTS.

Also at the beginning of the year RTS offered a convenient system of OTC transaction reports, which allows market participants to estimate a real stock market volume in Russia. As a result, in 2007, on RTS there were reported transactions with the amount over 374,6 bln dollars.

In September, on RTS securities market there was launched a unique technology of “Central Counterparty for Trades”, which is in accordance with western standards of exchange trading. Now it is enough for trading participants to open limits only on NP RTS, which acts as counterparty for all trades. Implementation of such technology helped to increase the volume of trades on RTS stock market by 30% in the second half of 2007.

The list of instruments was expanded in quality and quantity on Derivatives market. The number of contracts increased almost threefold. If at the beginning of the year it was possible to settle trades with 23 instruments on FORTS so by the end of 2007 63 contracts were traded on FORTS, of which there were 44 futures and 19 options. Among them there are such unique contracts for Russia as delivery futures on gas oil and sugar, options on gold, futures on silver, bond derivatives, including Federal Bond Loans. There has been created a full-bodied list of derivatives, widely represented by stock, cash and commodity sections.

In 2007 the system of risk management was significantly improved on FORTS.  In May, there was implemented a new system of portfolio margining of open positions of derivatives market participants, which significantly increased efficiency of operations with the use of futures and options combinations. And since September 2007 there appeared intermediate clearing, which allowed to lower margin for specific contracts by 30%. For instance, margin for futures on RTS Index – the most liquid instrument of the Russian stock market – lowered from 10% to 7,5%. But the whole level of guarantees significantly increased on FORTS. For the end of 2007 the volume of all marginal funds of the RTS Clearing Center equaled 18 bln rubles.

In 2007 RTS Index futures became the most liquid instrument of the Russian stock market. Trading volume of futures and options on RTS Index grew sixfold in 2007 and reached 180,8 bln dollars comparing with 30,9 bln dollars in 2006.

Since August trading volumes of RTS Index futures constantly exceed trading volumes of other “blue chips” of the Russian stock market, and on special days it reaches 2 bln dollars.   

Also in 2007 there happened an important event for the whole Russian market – trading volumes of derivatives on special days exceed trading volumes of stock market. For instance, on December 13th, trading volume on FORTS reached $5,2 bln.

The range of sectoral indices was expanded in 2007 on RTS. There appeared new indicators for such sectors of economy as electrical energy industry and finances.

For the end of the year more than 100 stocks were included in quotation lists on RTS and by this indicator RTS is the leader among other Russian exchanges. For December 28th, 2007 603 securities of 385 issuers were admitted to trading (for the beginning of the year – 563 securities of 350 issuers). And for the end of the year on RTS Board it was possible to quote 1603 securities of 1213 issuers. The number of instruments increased by 1,4 times on RTS Board.

Indices

By the results of 2007 RTS Index is up by 19,2% and at the end of trading session on December 28th, 2007 it reached 2290,51. Lowest RTS Index value last year -  1724,7 – was registered on may 30th, and on December 12th it reached its historical maximum - 2359,85.

The second-tier stock index, RTS-2, increased by 43,1% and reached - 2629,56. The lowest value of RTS Index – 2 in 2007 was registered on January 11th - 1788,6, and on December 28th, the Index reached its historical maximum -  2629,56.

On 2007 the range of RTS sectoral indices joined “RTS Index – Electric Utilities” and “RTS Index – Financials”.

RTS Index

Set of RTS Indices

Total trading volume on all RTS Group markets increased almost sixfold and equaled 687,41 bln dollars.

Trading volume of RTS Group of companies, mln dollars

Trading volume of RTS Group of companies, mln. dollars by 6 months