OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2011. On May 6, 2011 by the end of the main trading session the trading volume on FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, reached USD12,298,465,963 (RUB335,286,928,317) in terms of notional value, or 6,269,572 contracts represented by 1,123,325 trades.

The trading volume in futures contracts alone also hit a new record high of USD11,104,145,645 (RUB302,726,770,660) in terms of notional value, or 5,947,883 contracts.

The turnover in the RTS Index futures, the most liquid instrument of the Russian securities market, totaled USD7,572,865,293 in terms of notional value, or 1,987,289 contracts.

The most liquid instrument of the FORTS cash section, USD/RUB futures contract, saw a record turnover of USD1,455,273,361 in terms of notional value, or 1,426,685 contracts, and the trading volume in the top liquid contract of the FORTS commodities section, Brent futures, reached a record USD269,651,806 in terms of notional value, or 238,806 contracts. The number of trades in these contracts amounted to 702,758, 29,371 and 15,135 trades respectively.

The total trading volume on FORTS in the period from January to April 2011 doubled in comparison to the similar period in 2010 to end up at RUB14.9 trillion.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is the leading trading venue for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. According to the Futures Industry Association the derivatives market of RTS is among the TOP-10 global derivatives exchanges based on the results of 2010. At present FORTS has the widest range of instruments in Russia. These are 54 contracts (40 futures and 14 options) on RTS Index, RTS Standard Index, shares of Russian companies, short term interest rates, currency, oil, gasoil, power, gold, silver, and sugar.