OREANDA-NEWS. July 8 2011. RTS Stock Exchange is celebrating sixteen years since the first trading in Russian securities took place. Starting from July 5, 1995 RTS Stock Exchange has opened daily trading sessions for all stock market participants, allowing them to perform transactions in securities and derivatives instruments.

Over the years the Exchange has developed and advanced together with the Russian economy. The international financial community recognized the RTS Index, whose calculation was started on September 1, 1995, as the main indicator of trends in the Russian economy. The RTS Index historical data allows one to assess the consequences of economic and financial tendencies, which occurred in the country at a particular point in time.  

Currently, RTS is among the largest world exchanges in terms of total capitalization of shares traded, and FORTS, the futures and options market on RTS, is included in the TOP-10 global derivatives exchanges. The futures contract on the RTS Index (traded on FORTS) has been the most liquid instrument on the Russian stock market since 2007.

State-of-the-art exchange technologies have been developed and introduced by RTS: Central Counterparty for trades settlement, positions portfolio margining, intra-day clearing session, evening trading session, opportunities for netting.

RTS’s expertise and skills have been successfully applied in the Ukrainian Exchange and Eurasian Trade System Commodity Exchange JSC established in Ukraine and Kazakhstan respectively.

Over the past 16 years RTS Stock Exchange has become a member to a range of international organizations:

AFM (Association of Futures Markets),

FIA (Futures Industry Association),

FOA (Futures and Options Association),

WFE (World Federation of Exchanges).

RTS uses the most efficient solutions to enable comprehensive development of the Russian exchange infrastructure in close communication with foreign partners.

We are grateful to all our friends, customers and partners. We hope that we will continue to develop the Russian stock market together in the future and look forward to the opportunities ahead!