Volumes on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) touched close to 14.76 million contracts, growing 40 per cent from the same period last year.

This year, the exchange recorded an average volume of 75,148 contracts a day, valued at around $1.71 billion. The exchange also capped the third quarter with over 5 million contracts, growing 26 per cent from Q32015.

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 Open Interest of  593,583 contracts valued at over $9.1 billion.

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 Q3 2015. In addition, the contract also recorded the highest monthly Average OI of 13,840 contracts and also went to record its highest OI of 21,300 contracts on  September 28.

Gaurang Desai, CEO of DGCX, said: “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.”

The exchange’s Indian Rupee Quanto which was recently recognised by the Futures and Options World (FOW) as the ‘Most Innovative Currency Contract in Asia’, recorded a significant volume growth of 57 per cent year-on-year, trading an average of 24,591 contracts per day.  The Quanto contract also recorded its highest OI of 336,604 contracts on September 28. The Indian Rupee Quanto traded a total of 1,581,871 contracts this quarter, up 128 per cent from Q32015.

On the global connectivity front, DGCX entered into a strategic alliance with Avelacom, one of the fastest growing international telecom/IT companies providing infrastructure solutions. Through this partnership, DGCX  aims to improve the accessibility of low latency applications which continue to see a high demand from the  global financial communities.

DGCX now provides global access to its liquidity pool with cost effective connectivity solutions coupled with optimal capital efficiencies built into its trading and clearing infrastructure, thus making it an attractive global trading venue, it said. – TradeArabia News Service