OREANDA-NEWS. On 15 April 2008 was announced, that options contract on silver will be introduced on FORTS, derivatives section on RTS.

The introduction of the new contract will allow extending the investment opportunities of the financial market participants due to increased number of investment strategies with the use of silver derivatives.

Option contracts on silver significantly increase the hedging opportunities for industrial companies using this metal and jewelry companies as well as for all the other participants of the FORTS commodity market.

Silver is so attractive for investors because the price of this precious metal is comparatively low, it is widely used in industry and is a highly liquid investment asset.

The major consumers of the silver market are chemical industry enterprisers (catalysts), manufactures of household devices and jewelry companies. A growing demand for high quality silver is characteristic of all these industries.

Derivatives market of RTS – FORTS is a leading trading ground 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 (45 futures and 19 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short 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  rubles 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 13th, 2007.