OREANDA-NEWS. April 28, 2010. April 27, 2010 saw a record trading activity in the gasoil futures contract, with market participants transacting for a record value of RUB19.56 million (or USD0.67 million) represented by 1,164 contracts.

The previous trading volume record was set on April 21, 2010 when the trading volume reached 498 contracts.

From the start of trading (April 16, 2010) this futures contract has been picking up open interest including open interest generated by Russian fuel market players.

Most of the trading activity was coming from clients of Solid, OLMA Investment Firm, Novatek-Trading, MH-Trading, JSC Piter Trust Investment Company, ALOR INVEST Ltd.

Gasoil futures contracts market (DS) is a joint project of RTS Group and Saint Petersburg Exchange. DS is the first cash-settled futures contract in Russia oriented to local oil products market and quoted in Russian rubles. The contract’s settlement price equals the value of the Kortes Gasoil Index published by the information analysis center "KORTES".

Trading is organized by the Saint Petersburg Exchange, whereas trades are cleared by RTS Clearing Center and settled in RTS Settlement Chamber.

Trading takes place on the basis of a trading and clearing system of the FORTS market which helps realize the principle of united settlement with the futures and options of the derivatives market FORTS.

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.