The Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange and its clearing house the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation will be launching two new products, aluminium and zinc futures later this month to bolster its product offerings.
DGCX, which is an electronic commodity and derivatives exchange with more than 175 members from across the globe, offers futures and options contracts covering the precious metals, energy, equities and currency sectors.
“The imminent launch of these two products is a response to growing demands and investor feedback, and will play an important role in the DGCX Group’s growth strategy moving forward,” said Les Male, chief executive of DGCX on Saturday. “We are confident that they will further strengthen our value proposition to all participants across the non-ferrous metals supply chain, while complementing our existing portfolio of diverse products.”
The two products, which will be launched on March 22, will provide investors with an opportunity to mitigate the risks involved in the base metal markets, and appeal to global participants, by enabling them to hedge prices efficiently, the DGCX statement said. The size of each aluminium futures and zinc futures contract will be 5 metric tonnes, denominated and traded in US dollars.
DGCX traded over 1.62 million contracts in February, valued at $31.1 billion. Last year, the exchange broke its annual volumes record, trading 22.26 million contracts, up 28 per cent from 2017. The total value of the contracts was $474.94bn, beating its previous highest value of $448bn traded in 2013.
The best performing asset classes in 2018 were the Indian rupee (INR) product suite and the G6 currency futures. INR volumes increased by 25 per cent from 2017, driven mainly by increasing hedging appetite in volatile markets, while volumes in G6 futures grew 9 per cent.
