The Increase Of Contributions To The FORTS Contingency Fund Rescheduled

Due to the reduction of the open interest, the increase of contributions to be made by General and Special Clearing Members to the FORTS Contingency Fund is postponed till January 15^th, 2009.

The decision was taken in accordance with the recommendation issued by the RTS Derivatives Market Committee.

Previously, the increase of the Clearing Members’ contributions to the FORTS Contingency Fund was scheduled for October 15^th, 2008.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is a leading trading venue for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. At present FORTS has the widest range of instruments in Russia. These are 64 contracts (46 futures and 18 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short-term interest rates, currency, RTS Index, oil, silver, gas, oil, sugar and gold.

Trading volume on FORTS in 2007 grew threefold and reached 297.41 bln dollars or 144.9 million contracts. Compared with 2006 the number of trades increased more than twofold and reached 11.7mln. Total open interest at the end of the year equalled 14.7 bln roubles in cash or 3.2 million contracts. FORTS also saw a record day’s trading in 2007 when the value of all contracts traded reached 5.2 bln  dollars on December 13^th, 2007.