(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Gulf's only listed stock exchange, is set to attract more investors following an increase in the number of brokerage houses authorized to provide Direct Market Access service, Global Research said in its investment update.
DFM, which has swung to a third-quarter net profit due to higher trading values and bullish investor sentiment on back of continued economic recovery in the emirate, is increasing its "exposure to new investors" as it authorises more brokerage houses to conduct Direct Market Access, or DMA, said Global in its latest update.
The DMA allows investors to trade in DFM over the internet through the online portals of brokerage houses.
Recently DFM increased the total number of its brokerage firms providing this service to 11 companies which is four times as much as they had in the beginning of 2013, said the Kuwait based research company said.
The latest brokerage to receive accreditation for DMA service is the Abu Dhabi-based Al Ramz Securities. Other brokerages given accreditation this year include Mashreq Securities, Mubasher Financial Services, HSBC Middle East Securities, Adib Securities, and EFG Hermes.
Global noted that the latest financials from DFM for the period ended in September demonstrated a massive growth in profit. Net profit for the first nine months of 2013 was Dh176 million, up from Dh37 million in the same 2012 period, a jump of 376 per cent. The third quarter net profit was Dh81 million, up from a net loss of Dh2 million in the same 2012 period. "This increase was due to the tremendous increase in the daily traded value on the indices," Global said.
The average daily traded value on DFM surged 165 per cent in the first three quarter and 505 per cent in the third quarter year on year. "This was a result of improved investor sentiment over the news of upgrading the UAE to emerging markets and to the most recent news of Dubai wining the bid to host the World Expo 2020. Apart from the above mentioned reason, Dubai market rallied on the real estate recovery in which majority sectors have investments," Global said.
DFM's top-line almost doubled in the first nine months to reach Dh304 million. "The main reason for the huge increase was a substantial jump in trading commission fees. The latest data showed that the trading commission fees witnessed an increase of 154 per cent to Dh231 million during the first nine months and a staggering 611 per cent increase to Dh104 million in quarter three," said the investment update.
Although it's understandable that the revenues from trading commission fees will grow at a faster pace from the momentum that DFM is going through because of the good investor expectations for the country, the other fees did not grow at a significantly level. The brokerage fees fell by 15 per cent, fees generated by ownership transfer and mortgages rose 56 per cent while the other fees grew at a stable pace of nine per cent year on year in the nine-month period.
Global said the Expo win is expected to boost Dubai's gross domestic product, or GDP, by two per cent over the coming years. "We also estimate that the upgrade of the UAE to an emerging market will attract hefty cash flows to the country which will bring new cash flows to Dubai's NASDAQ and DFM. The implementation of the upgrade will happen at the start of second quarter 2014 and we expect a sizable flow into the markets in the quarters after the induction of the UAE to the index."
The MSCI Emerging Market Index gave the UAE a weight of 0.4 per cent. The upgrade had a huge bearing on our estimates which we have significantly revised, the investment update by Global said.
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