|By Arabian Post Staff| The Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) witnessed a strong upswing across various segments, which has been attributed to the uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the European Union and also a possible interest rate hike by the Fed in June.
The Exchange witnessed the upswing across precious metals, hydrocarbon and equities segments, trading an aggregate of 1.5Mn contracts in May, growing 55% from last year, while Year-To-Date (YTD) volumes saw an increase of 47% from last year, trading over 7.7 Million contracts so far this year.
DGCX recorded a sharp increase in its monthly Average Open Interest (OI) of 118,000 contracts, a substantial increase of 236% from the same period last year. Looking at a month-on-month comparison, the Exchange recorded the highest Average OI in WTI Mini, US SSF and Rupee Quanto, growing 38%, 83% and 47% respectively.
Gaurang Desai, Chief Executive Officer of the Exchange, said the heightened level of trading activity is a testimony to the fact that market participants are increasingly hedging their risk exposure through derivatives markets.
DGCX’s precious metals segment, a key performer for the month, grew 225% over the same period last year – trading over 80,000 contracts. The Exchange’s flagship contract – Gold futures saw a record high of 97% from last year. DGCX’s Gold portfolio comprising of a Gold futures contract, a Quanto contract and a Dubai Spot contract has had its best run in the last 12 months, growing at 223% over the same period last year.
DGCX’s hydrocarbon segment saw a brisk trading close to 17,500 contracts with average volumes in WTI Crude Oil recording an impressive increase of 233% on YTD basis. Similarly, trading on the mini sized WTI futures contract gained momentum, recording the highest ever volumes with 10,092 contracts, valued at over USD 47 million.
Within DGCX’s equities portfolio, Sensex futures saw a substantial increase in volumes – trading an average of 804 contracts a day in the month of May, up 71% from over previous month.