(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange, or DGCX, capped its seventh anniversary this month with a series of volumes milestones that reinforced its rising international profile.
The exchange's total volumes since its inception touched 18.6 million, valued in excess of 803 billion. Volumes in 2012 reached 8.5 million, already the highest annual volumes it has achieved since its launch in 2005.
In its seventh year, the DGCX embarked on a portfolio expansion strategy to widen its global market and launched significant initiatives to expand liquidity and depth in its existing contracts. It also rolled out a plan to deploy an industry-leading trading platform to support the growing sophistication of trading needs and initiated educational campaigns to extend the benefits of derivatives trading to a wider audience in the region.
Global Banking and Finance Review named the DGCX the world's "Best Global Commodities Exchange" in July in recognition of its trade volume growth and product innovation.
"The DGCX's international profile has taken a leap this year with many of its products emerging as important hedging and price-reference tools for business communities across the world. These products have allowed us to strategically position the DGCX as an important growth partner for global trading hubs," DGCX chief executive officer Gary Anderson said.
Among key products driving the exchange's international profile is the Indian Rupee futures contract, which is increasingly appealing to institutions that consume Indian rupee liquidity.
"The product has been attracting growing attention from both retail and international institutional participants, ranging from multinational banks, non-deliverable forward markets, traders and other business entities," said Anderson.
Increased back-month trading in the contract has expanded opportunities to both manage price volatility and profit from price movements in the Indian rupee. The DGCX currently contributes about 30 per cent of the global total exchange-traded value of Indian rupee futures contracts.
The product was recently awarded the prestigious "Contract of the Year 2012" award by FOW magazine. Year-to-date volumes in the contract reached a record 7.5 million trades valued at 280 billion as at November 22, 2012.
With an increasing number of gold wholesalers in Dubai hedging their exposures on the DGCX, the exchange's gold futures has also attracted greater interest from global traders. The contract has become particularly valuable to gold markets in Asian hubs like Singapore, which have substantial gold trading links with Dubai.
