OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 May 2008 was announced, that effective May 26th, 2008 RTS launched an evening trading session on FORTS, RTS derivatives section.

The entire set of FORTS instruments, both futures and options, is planned to be traded during the evening trading session.

"All around the world 24-hour trading is characteristic of futures markets. This is a relevant issue for Russia as well since the global market trends have the greatest impact on futures contracts on indices, currency and commodities", pointed out Roman Goryunov, CEO of OJSC "Russian Trading System" Stock Exchange". In his opinion the evening trading session will enable the Russian market to operate in the period when London and New York exchanges are open. The introduction of the evening trading session will allow professional participants to benefit from the news that is available after the primary trading session is closed. According to Roman Goryunov this will also open up new opportunities for international investors.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is a leading trading venue 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 71 contracts (51 futures and 20 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short term 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.