China's yuan-denominated oil futures have been traded in Shanghai for not quite two months now. But last week the number of daily transactions peaked at more than 240,000 lots in just one day. Mi Jiayi has talked to traders and analysts to see what they think about the market.

The Renminbi-denominated Shanghai crude futures have been gaining trade volume every day, and now stand at an average volume of around 100,000 lots daily. Prices began picking up in April, and reached as high as 485.3 yuan per barrel today, which at around 76 dollars makes Shanghai very competitive with international prices. One analyst says those are pretty good results for a newly launched futures contract.

WU JUN, DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL, SHANGHAI PETROLEUM PRODUCTS TRADING INDUSTRY ASSOC. "I'd say our crude oil futures are growing very fast, to have reached this level of activity in only one month, especially compared to the New York and London prices on markets which have more than 30 years of trading history. Shanghai crude is much easier for foreign investors to invest in compared to other futures products in China. In the past, foreign investors needed to start their own companies here in China, and they needed to exchange RMB in order to trade. But now they can open accounts with their passports, and use RMB or US dollars."

MI JIAYI SHANGHAI "Trade volumes hit a record high of over 240,000 lots last Wednesday, more than double the previous day. This comes after the United States announced that it is pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. That has really helped push the Shanghai crude trading. But how long will that push last?"

CAI JUNYI, SENIOR ANALYST, SHANGHAI SECURITIES "The US decision to pull out of the Iran deal is a geopolitcal factor that will cause the crude oil price to go up for quite some time. I'd say the timing is really good in terms of gaining influence for the Shanghai crude futures."

Currently, the most recognized benchmarks are still the prices of West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude. But the Shanghai crude prices have a special advantage because the market here can take advantage of the large time difference between China and the UK and the US.

GUI CHENXI, ANALYST, CITIC FUTURES COMPANY "Our trading follows Asian time, so during our daytime trading, the trade volumes in WTI and Brent are relatively low. So we can help make up the gap time for those two benchmarks, and the three futures products can provide complete 24 hour trading activity."

Gui says, however, that there are still issues of delivery that need to be clarified. Once they are taken care of, he says, even more foreign investors will be ready to join the yuan denominated oil futures."