OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2009. Starting from November 16, 2009 on FORTS, futures and options market on RTS, futures-style options on the following underlying assets will be launched:

Futures on Gazprom shares

Futures on LUKOIL shares

Futures on Sberbank ordinary shares

Futures on USD/RUB

Futures on gold.

In the near future futures-style options on the following underlying assets will also be launched:

Futures on silver

Futures on MMC NORILSK NICKEL ordinary shares

Futures on Polyus Gold ordinary shares

Futures on Rosneft ordinary shares

Futures on Surgutneftegas ordinary shares

Futures on Transneft privileged shares

Futures on VTB Bank ordinary shares

The options contracts that are already trading with the settlement date in 2010 will be replaced with futures-style options so far as they are settled.

For the first time Futures-style options on the RTS Index futures were launched on February 27, 2009. The first size of delivery of the futures-style options on the RTS Index futures stood at 2,636,048,233.26 roubles or 55,020 contracts which exceeded the size of the previous delivery by more than 3 times.

Futures-style options are a completely new instrument on the Russian derivatives market which open up major new opportunities for market participants. Introduction of this instrument will allow market participants to receive daily liquidity on profitable positions without executing or selling an options contract. Thanks to the single system of revaluation, market participants can manage portfolios comprised of futures and options more effectively, providing for a qualitative development of the options market.