Dubai Financial Market (DFM) Company posted a net profit of Dh96.5 million ($26.27 million) for the first half of the year, compared to Dh40.6 million for the same period in 2012, registering an increase of 138 per cent.

Chairman Abdul Jalil Yousuf Darwish, said: “During the first half of 2013, DFM has started to harvest the fruits of its sincere efforts over the years to develop the market infrastructure in line with international best practices, as well as the sound fundamentals of the national economy.”

He also said the DFM General Index has advanced 37 per cent by the end of June, and the daily trading value soared 85 per cent to Dh467 million compared to Dh252 million during the corresponding period of 2012.

Within the same context, DFM has attracted 14,359 new investors since the beginning of the year compared to 5,097 new investors during 2012, lifting the total number of investors registered on the market to approximately 800 thousand, he said.

The net profit of the second quarter 2013 reached Dh69.5 million, a 581 per cent increase compared to Q2 in 2012 level of Dh10.2 million.

The company recorded a total revenue of Dh178.4 million in H1-2013 compared to Dh118.7 million during H1- 2012.

It is noteworthy that the DFM trading value has significantly improved by 82 per cent to Dh58.8 billion during the first six months of this year compared to Dh32.3 billion in the corresponding half of last year.

Meanwhile, the trading value increased 222 per cent to Dh38 billion in the second quarter of 2013 compared to Dh11.8 billion in the same period of 2012. Trading commissions represents the main revenue stream for the DFM Company.

Essa Abdul Fattah Kazim, managing director and CEO of DFM said: “DFM’s development efforts have been well recognised by local and international investors with the reignited interest towards the market since the beginning of this year as well as the upgrade of the UAE to Emerging Market status by the MSCI."

"During the first half of the year, we implemented the ‘buyer cash compensation’, as the latest of DFM’s continuous efforts to implement international best practices and further market enhancements will follow,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service