OREANDA-NEWS. On 30 April 2008 was announced, that according to the Derivatives Market Committee decision of March 18th, 2008 FORTS discount rate employed in determining the assessed value of RAO UESR securities admitted as initial margin will be increased from 0,3 to 0,5 effective May 16th, 2008.

On May 23rd, 2008 RAO UESR securities will be removed from the list of securities admitted as initial margin. By the specified date Settlement companies holding RAO UESR stocks as initial margin shall replace them by cash funds or other securities on the list approved by the Clearing Center.

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 66 contracts (46 futures and 20 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.