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DGCX achieves 191,843 contracts in November
Year-to-date (YTD) volumes rise 33% to reach 1,760,570 contracts
Currency future volumes increase 47%year-on-year to 132,126 contracts
December 7, 2010--Trading volumes on the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) reached 191,843 contracts in November, valued at US $9.6 billion, led mainly by activity in currencies and precious metals. November volumes increased marginally by 1% year-on-year but declined 9% on last month due to the Exchange being closed for several public holidays in November.
Year-to-date, the exchange is currently up 33% on last year, with 1,760,570 total contracts traded as at end November, compared with 1,322,800 contracts during the same period last year.
Currency futures recorded 132,126 contracts in November, a year-on-year increase of 47% and value of US $6.7 billion. Year-to-date currency futures volumes reached 1,167,843 contracts, a growth of 122% on last year. Indian Rupee futures continue to achieve record trading activity this year, with 382,620 contracts traded year-to-date, a 561% increase on the same period last year.
Indian Rupee/Dollar, Euro/Dollar, Sterling/Dollar and Yen/Dollar futures registered monthly volumes of 92,639; 18,717; 9,329 and 2,198 contracts respectively. The new currency pairs Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Swiss Franc, introduced in June 2010, saw monthly volumes of 3,094; 3,781 and 2,368 contracts.
Inthe precious metal and energy segments, trading in gold and silver futures saw a slight drop last month with 47,466 and 4,273 contracts traded, while WTI crude oil futures registered 7,978 contracts.
Dubai bourse stabilises above 1,700 points
December 8, 2010--The DFM General Index added 0.61% to close at 1,716.57. Arabtec shares extended the rally from Monday, ending 4.63% higher at Dhs2.12. Contractor Drake and Scull International broke through the chart technically important resistance barrier at Dhs1.00, closing 2.94% up at Dhs1.05.
Bank Emirates NBD weakened 2.19% to finish at Dhs3.17. Trading volumes dipped slightly, as 219m shares changed hands.
Lacklustre trading drags Abu Dhabi market down
December 7, 2010--The market in Abu Dhabi, the ADX, dipped 0.34% to close at 2,740.11 on Tuesday. A number of blue chips in Abu Dhabi ended unchanged, such as Aldar (flat at Dhs2.29), Sorouh Real Estate (even at Dhs1.68) or Dana Gas (unchanged at Dhs0.74).
Banks headed mostly lower, such as National Bank of Abu Dhabi (down 1.63% at dhs12.05) or National Bank of Umm al-Qaiwain (off 9.48% at Dhs2.09).
Qatar's Barwa Real Estate hits new 2010 high
December 7, 2010--The Qatar Exchange (QE) in Doha gained 1.11% to reach 8,625.42. Shares of Barwa Real Estate jumped 3.86% to close at a new 2010 high at QR37.70. United Development Company, known as UDC and developer the lifestyle-island Pearl Qatar, also extended its rally,
suring 5.26% too QR28). Real estate share became hot stocks after the FIFA decided last Thursday that Qatar will host the World Cup in 2022.
DP World shares weaken 0.66%
December 7, 2010--The FTSE NASDAQ Dubai UAE 20 Index closed at 1838.460 today, up 15.940, or 0.87%, from the previous close. DP World ended 0.66% lower at $0.599.
No other shares were traded. The Nasdaq Dubai suffered a setback on late Monday, when Axiom Ltd. announced to cancel its planned IPO at the exchange. The first listing day was expected to take place on Thursday, December 9th.
Tadawul exchange gains half a percentage point
December 7, 2010--The Saudi Arabian index Tasi closed 0.56% higher at 6,436.64 points. The Kingdom's largest petrochemical firm by production capacity and market capitalisation Sabic ended close to its year high at SR105.50 (up 2.18%).
Tourism Enterprise Co., also known as Shams (arab. Sun) posted the largest declined, closing 5.42% lower at SR23.55.
UAE econ min hopes to rejoin Gulf single currency - paper
December 6, 2010--The United Arab Emirates hopes it and Oman will rejoin a planned Gulf single currency project one day, UAE economy minister was quoted as saying by a Saudi newspaper on Sunday, ahead of a Gulf rulers summit this week.
Rulers from Gulf Arab countries will meet in UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Dec. 6-7 to discuss political, security and financial issues affecting the world's top oil exporting region.
"The Emirates still hope that there will be a single currency for the countries of the (Gulf Cooperation) Council one day," Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri told Saudi newspaper Al-Eqtisadiah.
Union National Bank gains despite MSCI exclusion
December 6, 2010-The Abu Dhabi market ADX added 0.14% to finish at 2,749.42 points. Shares of Union National Bank (UNB) surged 3.50%, closing at Dhs3.21. UNB was excluded from MSCI Barra's United Arab Emirates Index "due to low liquidity",
The National reported on Sunday, citing an unidentified MSCI spokesman. UNB announced today, on the other hand, that it has received approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait to open a branch in the Northern Gulf state. The oil and gas-bellwether Taqa ended 3.31% lower at Dhs1.46.
Kuwait bourse ends unchanged
December 6, 2010--While banks overall gained value at the Kuwait market KSE, weak performing real estate shares weighed on the KSE Price Index, closing 0.03% higher at 6,867.7 points.
Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate Co. bucked the sector trend and jumped 10.41% higher to reach KD0.0265. Kuwait achieved a budget surplus of KD5.6bn in the first seven months of the fiscal year which ends in March 2011, Gulf News reported.
Qatar Exchange rises 0.63%
December 6, 2010--The QE Index did not continue the rally from Sunday as it added 0.63% to close at 8530.63. Shares of Qatar Telecom, one of the mains sponsors of the 2006-held Asian Games in Doha,
gained 0.55% to close at QR182.50. Qatar National Bank gained 1.58% to finish at QR186.50.
