OREANDA-NEWS. August 6, 2010. Starting from August 5, 2010 OJSC RTS is introducing more opportunities for investing on the cash equity market RTS Standard. In particular it is providing services for trading in index funds units, primarily index funds calculated by RTS, thus enabling new, unique products for Russia, an analogue of exchange traded funds (ETFs), which are already very popular instruments on the global markets.

Investors using these instruments can buy or sell a diversified stock portfolio with minimal expenses, well defined trading prices and settlement terms. An additional advantage of the new product is expanded range of potential arbitrage strategies, which can be applied when working with instruments of that kind, i.e. stocks in the RTS Standard market and derivatives market instruments.

For calculation and management of risks associated with these specific instruments, OJSC RTS uses a special methodology developed on the basis of FORTS and RTS Standard technologies. One of the key functions of RTS will be tracking and providing the market participants with the information on the fund structure and its asset value aimed at reaching maximum transparency of unit pricing.

Roman Goryunov, CEO at OJSC RTS, commented that the launch of this product is another step forward in the development of new technologies on the market, which will offer asset management companies a totally new type of exchange service – exchange trading in securities issued by these companies with T+4 settlement. "We do everything to implement in Russia the most advanced technologies of the global markets which will allow investors to benefit from innovative services, and will allow the Russian market turnover in these instruments to reach the level of the other global markets", said Roman Goryunov.

The resolution to release this product was taken by the Board of Directors of OJSC RTS on July 27, 2010. The main principles of admitting securities to trading on RTS Standard (in particular, criteria and requirements for including index funds units to the list of traded securities) were also approved at the Meeting of the Board.

RTS Standard sets a totally new standard for equity trading in Russia. It will facilitate building up the liquidity of the Russian securities market, curb counterparties’ risks and boost development of the infrastructure. It aims to attract substantial international investor interest into the local equity market due to the applied global standards of trading.

RTS Standard offers CCP trading in anonymous order book without full advance depositing of assets and with settlement on T+4. The market hours are from 10.30 am to 11.50 pm MSK. The range of instruments includes top 22 liquid stocks of Russian issuers. RTS Standard also offers portfolio margining with trades made on FORTS, RTS’s derivatives section, which makes trading in all the instruments possible using a single, consolidated cash position.