Ukraine Exchange launches derivatives trading on UX Index

Kiev. May 27, 2010. Today the Ukrainian Exchange launched trading on the derivatives section of the exchange, announced today Oleg Tkachenko, Chief Executive Officer of the Ukrainian Exchange. As announced previously, a cash-settled futures contract on the UX Index is the first instrument to be launched on the derivatives market of the Ukrainian Exchange.

"The launch of the derivatives market is one of the strategic aims set by the market participants. Derivatives are long-awaited instruments and today already 24 companies are admitted to trading on the derivatives market of the Exchange, while 10 of them provide the private investors access to trading through internet, - says Oleg Tkachenko, CEO, Ukrainian Exchange. – And I am confident that the number  of traders will grow rapidly".

"Launch of futures is one of the important steps in the development of the Ukrainian financial market. Derivatives instruments enhance liquidity and facilitate hedging, their ease of use and reliability fuel the interest of both local and international private and institutional investors in the instruments, comments Anton Rakhmanov, Asset Management Director, Troika Dialog.

The Derivatives market of the Ukrainian Exchange operates on the basis of the RTS trading platform, collateral system and Central Counterparty technology, which have been in use on the Russian market for years and have proved its viability by riding out more than one financial crisis. "RTS trading system processes over one million trades a day and the trading system installed at the Ukrainian Exchange has the same capacity, notices Oleg Tkachenko. – Besides, for the first time in the Ukrainian market there will be a Central Counterparty (CCP) technology available which is to guarantee settlement of all trade obligations".

"Historically the Russian derivatives market began with single stock futures, and for a number of reasons only after a certain time we managed to organize trading in the RTS Index futures, - says Roman Goryunov, CEO of RTS Stock Exchange. – However the Ukrainian derivatives market is going live with the introduction of a futures contract on the Ukrainian equities Index. We expect this contract to pick up volume dramatically and become the top liquid instrument of the Ukrainian market shortly".

Igor Mazepa, Chairman of the Exchange Board of the Ukrainian Exchange, Director General at the investment company Concorde Capital, believes that the launch of the new derivatives contract is very timely: "Today investors need a tool for hedging their risks. I’m sure that the contract offered by the Ukrainian Exchange as of today will meet this need successfully, - says Igor Mazepa. – In addition, the derivatives market broadens the array of investment strategies and gives an opportunity for larger investment returns".

The decision to start full-fledged derivatives trading on the Ukrainian Exchange was approved by the Exchange Board on May 25, 2010 after mock trading that took place from April 28, 2010 to give market participants time to fine-tune the interaction of Internet trading systems and to adjust their internal registration and accounting systems to the exchange’s trading system.

For Reference

The Ukrainian Exchange is the leading organized stock market and the liquidity center of Internet trading in Ukraine. The Exchange launched trading in March 2009 and by now has become a leader of trading technologies on the Ukrainian stock market. It was the first exchange to launch the quote-driven market, internet trading, online index calculation, repo market and a central counterparty technology.

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 47 contracts (34 futures and 13 options) on RTS Index, RTS Standard Index, shares of Russian companies, bonds, short term interest rates, currency, oil, gasoil, gold, silver, and sugar

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