Leading global interior solutions group and fit-out contractor Depa has appointed a unit of top UAE financial services company Shuaa Capital as its liquidity provider.

With this deal, Shuaa further strengthens its position as the country's most active and experienced liquidity provider and market maker for listed equities and futures.

The Dubai group traces its first market making activities back to 2007, and has been providing this highly specialized service in an orderly and prudent manner, strategically helping illiquid stocks gain traction.

Shuaa has been actively working alongside the country’s capital markets participants including the exchanges and the various regulators, towards helping grow and expand the overall financial sector landscape as it seeks to evolve.

In 2016, Shuaa helped Nasdaq Dubai to launch its single-stock futures market as founding market maker, said the statement from the company.

During 2017, both the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) awarded Shuaa licences to act as a market maker and liquidity provider in order to assist issuers in maintaining a liquid and orderly market in their respective stock listings.

Magdi Shannon, the head of trading at Shuaa, said: "When we launched our market making business, we set a target to become the biggest Market Maker and Liquidity Provider in the Middle East in support of the expansionary plans of the region’s capital markets."

"I believe we are well positioned to achieve that target, having already become the major player in the UAE for this service. We now provide liquidity to all single stock futures on Nasdaq Dubai, where we look forward to seeing other market makers join the success story and help grow the market, and the majority of all main equity listings on the Exchange. We look forward to working with the ADX and the DFM listed issuers," added Shannon.

Shuaa Capital CEO Fawad Tariq Khan said: "Demand for liquidity provision services is growing and at Shuaa, we have positioned ourselves as a leader in this regard."

"We are delighted to be the company of choice for Depa, and all other listed equities and Futures, and we look forward to playing a key role in supporting liquidity levels. We are also looking to expand this sophisticated service for other markets in the region," he added.-TradeArabia News Service