New Investment Instruments To Be Launched On Russian Market

Following the successful launch of futures trading on two indexes, new investment instruments are expected soon on the local stock market, along with the country's first index funds. The Russian Trading System launched trading of futures contracts on RUIX and RUIX-oil on Dec. 3 - and was startled by their success. "After nine trading days, the volumes of total opened positions reached $1 million, which is second place after deals with UES shares," RTS President Ivan Tyryshkin said. "We were surprised to see so much interest in the new products," he said, adding that RTS expects the new instruments to be No. 1 in volume. The indexes consist of RTS's most liquid stocks. RUIX-oil is made up of LUKoil, Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft and Yukos, while RUIX consists of those four stocks along with Unified Energy Systems, Mosenergo and Rostelekom. Although the Russian stock market, still relatively young, suffers from a lack of instruments, it is moving fast to develop new products, St. Petersburg Times reported.