OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2010. On October 19, 2010 new trading records were fixed in the currency and commodity sections of FORTS, futures and options market of RTS.

"Institutional and private investors start using hedging instruments for their portfolios more actively, due to the rising volatility on global currency markets,’ explained Evgeny Serdyukov, Director of the Futures & Options Market at OJSC RTS.

Trading volume on option on EUR/USD FX futures contract hit a record high of 2746 contracts or USD3,787,840 (RUB115,618,889) by the end of 19th of October. Open interest volume on this instrument went up to USD6,678,307.5 (RUB203,846,653).

Open interest volume on EUR/RUB FX futures contract reached maximum level of 149 474 contracts or USD207,806,026 (RUB6,343,008,800).

FORTS commodity market also saw record turnover on gold futures. Trading volume on this instrument totaled USD88,406,980 (RUB2,698,508,132). The previous maximum value was fixed on October 8, 2010 when trading volume reached USD86,985,428 (RUB2,655,117,109).

FORTS, the derivatives market of RTS, is the leading trading venue for futures and options in Russia. Trading on FORTS started in September 2001. According to the Futures Industry Association the derivatives market of RTS is among the TOP-10 global derivatives exchanges based on the results of 2009. At present FORTS has the widest range of instruments in Russia. These are 46 contracts (33 futures and 13 options) on RTS Index, shares of Russian companies, short term interest rates, currency, oil,  gold, silver, and sugar.