RTS FORTS: Weekly Data February 25th-February 28th

For the week of February 25th - February 28th, 2003, total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on RTS) equaled 283 thousand contracts, or 1 233 million rubles in underlying value, down from 502 thousand contracts and 2 167 million rubles last week. The number of trades reached 7 658, compared with last week's 12 489 trades. Total open interest, as of February 28th, 2003, increased by 2% in contracts, to 399 thousand contracts, and by 4% in rubles, to 1 753 million rubles.

FORTS members executed 7 456 trades in futures contracts, with total trading volume reaching 277 thousand contracts, or 1 211 million rubles in underlying value (the week of February 17th- February 21st, 2003, showed 488 thousand contracts and 2 108 million rubles in underlying value, accordingly.

FORTS options trading volume equaled 5 thousand contracts or 21 million rubles in underlying value, compared with last week's 59 million rubles and 14 thousand contracts. Weekly trading activity decreased from 535 to 202 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.