Dubai
Volumes on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) touched close to 14.76 million contracts, growing 40 per cent from same period last year. This year, the exchange recorded an average volume of 75,148 contracts a day, valued at around $1.71 billion (Dh6.3 billion). The exchange also capped the third quarter with over 5 million contracts, growing 26 per cent from the third quarter of 2015.
Despite the festival season in September, trading activity significantly gained momentum post-Eid holidays, with DGCX trading an average of 88,131 contracts a day, growing 33 per cent from the same period last year.
The Exchange also registered the highest average monthly Open Interest (OI) position of 438,111 contracts, representing growth of 172 per cent over the same period last year. During September, the exchange also recorded its highest ever OI of 593,583 contracts valued at over $9.1 billion.
“We view Open Interest as the most accurate measure of growth of a contract as it indicates increased trust and market participation in DGCX, and therefore, these numbers are very encouraging. It is particularly worth highlighting the performance of our Indian rupee options contract which has seen a surge in trading activity recently. This is reflective of market participants increasingly viewing ‘Options’ as an effective tool to hedge against volatile markets,” Gaurang Desai, CEO of DGCX, said in a statement.
The standout performer of the month was the Indian rupee options contract which witnessed robust trading activity, registering close to 215,088 contracts this year, up 151 per cent from last year. The options contract also recorded a substantial year-on-year growth of 707 per cent , trading an average 1,956 contracts per day. Indian rupee options traded a total of 82,999 contracts this quarter, recording an increase of 132 per cent from the third quarter of 2015. In addition, the contract also recorded the highest monthly average open interest of 13,840 contracts and also went to record its highest open interest of 21,300 contracts on September 28, 2016.
