Nasdaq Dubai launched on Tuesday futures trading on MSCI’s index of UAE stocks as it continues to expand its product offerings to attract new investors and boost liquidity.
The launch of the futures trading is part of a 2017 license agreement between Nasdaq and MSCI to create futures on regional indexes, which are tracked by global investors, the Dubai International Financial Centre-based exchange said in a statement.
“The launch of futures on MSCI’s UAE index is the latest step in Dubai’s strategy of expanding the range of its capital markets product offerings, to cater for diverse segments of investors,” said Essa Kazim, chairman of the Dubai Financial Market and governor of the DIFC. “We will maintain our focus on creating new ways to attract capital into the UAE and the region.”
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[ Nasdaq Dubai plans Saudi index launch after introducing kingdom's equity futures ]
[ Nasdaq Dubai to launch MSCI's UAE Index futures in January ]
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The exchange plans to add this year trading on a Saudi index to its list of products after launching Saudi equity futures, its first single stock futures from outside the UAE, its chief executive Hamed Ali told The National earlier this month.
Nasdaq Dubai, the first exchange to offer derivatives and futures trading in the region, is expanding and diversifying its portfolio of products to boost liquidity and attract new investors, which have a 70 and 30 per cent split in favour of institutional and retail investors, respectively.
Other assets classes, including equities, bonds, real estate investment trusts (Reits), and sukuk and Islamic products are already trading on the exchange.
The MSCI index of UAE stocks has 11 constituent companies that are among the largest and most liquid in the UAE, including ports operator DP World, Dubai’s biggest listed developer Emaar Properties and the country's top lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The exchange, which launched futures trading in 2016 with seven UAE single-stock futures, introduced last year futures on the Dubai Financial Market’s DFMGI share index as well as the ADI index of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
Currently the exchange has 29 single stock futures, including 12 Saudi companies.
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[ Nasdaq Dubai to launch Saudi equities futures this year ]
[ ADX follows Dubai bourse into the futures with Nasdaq ]
[ Nasdaq Dubai, DFM to launch index-linked futures contracts ]
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