RTS FORTS: Weekly Data February 17th-February 21st

For the week of February 17th - February 21st, 2003, total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on RTS) equaled 502 thousand contracts, or 2 167 million rubles in underlying value, down from 742 thousand contracts and 3 190 million rubles last week. The number of trades reached 12 289, down from last week's 17 965 trades. Total open interest, as of February 14, 2003, increased by 5% in contracts to 392 thousand contracts and 4% in rubles to 1,692 million rubles.

FORTS members executed 11 954 trades in futures contracts, with total trading volume reaching 488 thousand contracts, or 2 108 million rubles in underlying value (the week of February 10th-February 14th, 2003, showed 17 112 trades, 722 thousand contracts and 3 113 million rubles in underlying value, accordingly.

FORTS options trading volume equaled 14 thousand contracts or 59 million rubles in underlying value, compared with last week's 77 million rubles and 19 thousand contracts. Weekly trading activity decreased from 853 to 535 trades.

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. 81 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.