UAE exchange, Dubai Financial Market (DFM), has debuted its equity futures trading function, part of its new Futures Trading Platform.
The move is designed to attract more international investors by diversifying its product range and enabling more hedging options for portfolios.
The platform has so far recruited 16 companies as launch partners including trading members, market makers and technology and data providers.
Essa Kazim, DFM chairman, said that the exchange plans to add real estate investment trust trading and further expand the platform to attract new companies for listing in the future.
The DFM’s move follows other exchanges in the region that have sought to offer more asset classes and trading functionality to capture more international participants.
In July, the Saudi stock exchange announced plans to launch index futures products while Nasdaq Dubai has introduced a number of new index products over the last 18 months.
Meanwhile the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange reported a 25% increase in the number of foreign investors trading on its venue in the first half of 2020.
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