OREANDA-NEWS. February 21, 2011. On February 17, 2011 trading in futures contracts on a basket of federal loan bonds, OFZ2 и OFZ4 started on RTS.

By the end of the first trading day 52 trades with a total volume of USD 5,900,832 (RUB172,737,995) in value were executed by market participants. Open interest volume reached a value of USD8,340,896 (RUB 244,167,226).

"The first trading day reflected the market participants’ interest in this new instrument as the futures contract on a basket of federal loan bonds allows one to hedge portfolios consisting of bonds on the spot market as well as developing different trading strategies in the long segment of the yield curve’, comments  Evgeny Serdyukov, Director of the Futures & Options Market at OJSC RTS.

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 53 contracts (38 futures and 15 options) on RTS Index, shares of Russian companies, short term interest rates, currency, oil, gold, silver, and sugar.