OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2010. On December 1, 2010 Money section of FORTS, the derivatives arm of RTS will launch trading in two new futures contracts: futures on GBP/USD and AUD/USD exchange rates.

The launch of these new contracts is part of a joint project between RTS Stock Exchange, Thomson Reuters and ICAP.

According to the contracts’ specifications, both futures contracts are cash-settled. The contract lots are GBP1,000 and AUD1,000 accordingly. The new instruments will trade under the following tickers:

 GBPU (GBP/USD exchange rate)

 AUDU (AUD/USD exchange rate)

Settlement prices (fixing) will be published by Thomson Reuters and ICAP on the FXFIX page of the Thomson Reuters terminal at 2pm MSK on the contracts’ settlement day.

"Investment into foreign currency is one of the most popular types of investments in Russia among both physical market participants and legal entities, says Evgeny Serdyukov, Director of Derivatives market FORTS at RTS Stock Exchange. – we are pleased to provide Russian market participants with an additional opportunity to hedge risks and implement investment strategies".

Money section is one of the oldest and most dynamically developing sections on the derivatives market FORTS. At the moment it includes three futures contracts on USD/RUB, EUR/USD and EUR/RUB exchange rates and two options contracts on USD/RUB and EUR/RUB futures. According to the Futures Industry Association from results of the first 8 months of 2010, the USD/RUB and EUR/USD take 7th and 15th positions respectively in the TOP-20 t most actively traded FX contracts.

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.