RTS Stock Exchange: FORTS February 2004 Monthly Data

In February 2004 total trading volume on FORTS (Futures & Options on the RTS) increased by 18% in rubles and 19% in contracts and reached 2,7 million contracts and 21 billion rubles. Total open interest as of February 27th, 2004, equaled 6 billion rubles and 704 thousand contracts.

The top selling contracts in January were "RAO UES of Russia" futures contracts (57% of total trading volume), "Gazprom" futures contract (17%) and "LUKoil" futures contract (14%).

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 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 3 options.