The Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX) has announced steady growth in its trading turnover which hit $44.22 million during the period between the launch date and December 19.

BFX, the first multi-asset exchange in the Mena region, registered a volume of 1,126 contracts cumulative during the period.

Announcing the record growth, Arshad Khan, the managing director and Ccief Executive Officer of the BFX and the BFX Clearing and Depository Corporation (BCDC), said the exchange achieved the highest trading turnover of $3.96 million with a volume of 98 contracts on December 15, 2011.

'We are extremely pleased with the continuous growth of trading volumes on the BFX platform, to see that our diversification strategy is delivering and our offerings are being very well received,' he remarked.

'At the BFX, we have deployed one of the best in-class technology platform that helped us in implementing advanced trading, risk management and settlement methodologies. This has ensured that our market operates as per the globally recognised state-of-the-art parameters,' said Khan.

'High-end technology platform along with the well trained and experienced staff enabled the BFX to achieve a smooth start of operations of 13 hours trading window each day from Monday to Friday and e-Tayseer operating on Sunday as well,' he added.  

The exchange had launched futures contracts on Gold, Natural Gas, and Euro–US Dollar currency pair on the November 23.

It is one of the few exchanges in the Middle East region to implement advanced trading, risk management and settlement systems.

The margin computation of the BFX Futures contracts is based on the Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk (Span) method, in line with international best practices and global standards.

The exchange also successfully completed four weeks of trading on its conventional platform.-TradeArabia News Service