The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) continued to be a safe haven for investors looking to insure against volatility stirred by a series of significant political events, with the Exchange trading an aggregate 1.37 million contracts in the month of January, valued at US $ 33 billion.
In the USA, President Trump’s inauguration and his administration’s immediate policy changes along with the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on Brexit have caused financial market volatility. These events have had a significant impact on DGCX‘s trading activity, resulting in the Exchange recording its highest daily trading volume for 2017 on January 25 with 117,637 contracts, valued at US $ 2.9 billion. The British Pound and Yen futures witnessed a substantial year-on-year growth in volumes, up 87% and 757% respectively.
DGCX gold futures also recorded an impressive increase of 56% with the precious metal witnessing major price fluctuations in the lead up to the Chinese New year.
DGCX’s Indian products particularly, Indian Rupee Options and Quanto contracts registered strong year-on-year growth of 176% and 127% respectively, reflecting on the positive tone as India and the UAE elevated their strategic partnership. In addition, investor appetite was strong for DGCX’s Indian Single Stock futures which grew by 29% in comparison to the same period last year. Another currency pair that saw significant trading appetite was the Chinese Yuan futures, which recorded the highest monthly Average Open Interest of 436 contracts in January 2017.
Gaurang Desai, CEO of DGCX, commented on this month’s performance:
Last year, we witnessed sustained volatility, which emphasized to investors the value of transacting in a secure, transparent and regulated market place to hedge their risks and exposure against rapid price movements. Global markets are likely to continue experiencing sharp bouts of volatility throughout 2017 against a backdrop of major political developments and anticipated instability. We expect increased demand for derivative products for hedging and investment purposes and we are confident that DGCX will continue to play an increasingly important role for investors within the region.
Keeping innovation at the core of the DGCX is key. We are optimistic that the current product pipeline for the year will enable the DGCX to further improve its growth and development milestones.