OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2010. RTS Stock Exchange has today launched a new benchmark index for Siberian-based companies – the RTS Siberia Index.  This is the first regional stock index to be launched within Russia and is in cooperation with the Inter-regional Association for Economic Cooperation of Subjects of the Russian Federation "Siberian Agreement".

RTS Siberia Index is the first regional indicator that tracks ten enterprises in the Siberian Federal District. The new capitalization weighted index helps investors to monitor the investment attractiveness and economic development of Siberia firms.

RTS Siberia Index is a joint project of RTS Stock Exchange and the Inter-regional Association "Siberian Agreement" carried out under the Agreement on cooperation for increasing the economic potential and investment attractiveness of enterprises in Siberian Federal District.

In addition to  analyzing the investment attractiveness and development potential of the region via the performance of its stocks the index is also designed to meet the legal requirements for the composition of specialist  investment funds,  thus making it eligible for the creation of tradable  index investment funds.

The RTS Siberia Index constituents and their sector classifications include:

PJSC Belon  (Raw materials)

OJSC Sibirtelekom (Telecoms)

OJSC "MMC "NORILSK NICKEL" (Raw materials)

JSC "RusHydro" (Utilities)

JSC "WGC-3"  (Utilities)

OAO Raspadskaya (Raw materials)

JSC Gazprom Neft (Energy)

JSC "TGK-11" (Utilities)

OAO Southern Kuzbass Coal Company (Raw materials)

MDM Bank (Financials)

The new benchmark will provide a solid information support to government initiatives in Siberia including in carrying out major investment projects, developing inter-industry connections and positioning the Siberian Federal District in the integrated economic space of Russia and on the international level.

The Inter-regional Association "Siberian Agreement" was set up in 1990 as a voluntary economic union of 19 regions within the Russian Federation bringing together 22 million people in a territory that constitutes one third of the country’s total area and is particularly rich in minerals resources.

One of the key tasks of the association is securing the conditions for effective cooperation in socio-economic development between the subjects of the Russian Federation based on consolidating material, financial and intellectual resources of the region.

RTS Stock Exchange is the leading exchange operator in cash equities and derivatives markets of Russia.

On the cash equities side RTS offers trading on RTS Classica and RTS Standard. RTS Standard became a new standard of exchange trading in Russia due to absence of 100% advance depositing of collateral and cutting-edge technologies meeting.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is the leading trading venue for financial derivatives in Russia. Over 90% of the total turnover in derivatives is concentrated on FORTS.

The RTS Index reflects performance of 50 stocks from the top Russian issuers in terms of market capitalization that trade on RTS Classica and RTS Standard. It is the key benchmark of the Russian securities market.