OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2009. The market participants completed a record number of trades on FORTS, RTS’s derivatives section – 511,263. The previous record was set on October 21, 2009, when the number of trades reached 491,882. The largest block of trading was in the flagship RTS Index contract, which recorded 330,434 trades.

The new record for trades was driven by a new record for contract volume, with 1,000,330 contracts traded on the day with a value exceeding USD2.8 billion.

The previous record high of 933,472 contracts comprising 313,465 trades for a value of USD2,671,592,654 was seen on October 21, 2009.

The RTS Index futures started trading in August 2005. In two years it became the most liquid instrument of the Russian equity market. According to the rating issued by the Futures Industry Association based on the results of the first half of 2009 the RTS Index futures entered top ten most liquid instruments on indices worldwide.

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is the 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 47 contracts (34 futures and 13 options) on shares of Russian companies, bonds, short term interest rates, currency, RTS Index, oil, silver, diesel oil, sugar and gold.