OREANDA-NEWS. On 16 May 2008 was announced, that the Micex, which integrates trading and settlement systems for Russia’s financial markets, announced that during the first half of May 2008, trading activity in the currency futures segment of the MICEX derivatives market grew substantially.

During the first 12 days of May, the total volume of trading in USD futures totaled RUR 139.6 billion, or 5,803.4 thousand contracts.

During this period, the daily average volume of trading in USD futures amounted to 967.2 thousand contracts, a 14% increase on the previous record figure that was reached in August 2007 (847.5 thousand contracts). Open interest increased markedly, and on May 13 2008 reached its new record figure of 8,077.9 thousand contracts (RUR 191.6 billion in monetary terms), a 16% increase on the previous record (January 31 2008: 6,941.3 thousand contracts).

The MICEX derivatives market continues to dominate Russia's on-exchange market for currency derivatives, both in terms of trading volumes and the volume of open interest, accounting for 97% of the total trading volume and 94% of the open interest. The figures achieved by the MICEX for the RUR/USD contract exceed those for Chicago Mercantile Exchange in May – they are 9.6 times the CME figure for trading volume and 3.7 times that for the volume of open interest.