DGCX to launch Pakistan rupee, Turkish lira futures in H1 2016

Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange will launch Pakistan rupee and Turkish lira futures in the first half of next year, its chief executive said.

“Traditionally, in terms of Pakistan geography, we have had a lot of membership based from Pakistan. There is a natural demand much like Indian rupee (futures) due to high population here and the exposure they might have, said Gaurang Desai, CEO of the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange.

“We have MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Borsa Istanbul and Pakistan Mercantile Exchange and exploring synergies. Hopefully, we’ll launch the rupee and lira futures in the first-half of 2016,” Desai told Emirates 24l7 in an interview on the sidelines of a conference.

“In our industry cycle, the year-end becomes code freeze cycle from early part of December as people start to shut down to take stock of annual results. They don’t develop new products to put on the platform. It starts picking up in the second week of January. So we expect to launch two currency futures – rupee and lira – in the first half of this year.”

In October, the Dubai-based derivatives bourse and the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited (PMEX) agreed to create a forum to work together, share information, and bridge connections between the financial markets of Pakistan and UAE.

“It’s very important to have different type of participants before we launch the product because product failures rates are very high in this industry so there’s need to make sure that whatever you’re going to launch you do proper research and survey and supported by able market makers and participants.”

DGCX had reportedly earlier planned to launch lira and Chinese yuan futures in the second-half of 2015.

However, Desai believes that the exchange is on track to launch renminbi futures by the end of this year. “We plan to launch yuan futures by the end of this year.”

The commodities exchange’s monthly figures for October revealed a 30 per cent rise in metal trades compared to October last year, with 58,596 metal trades compared to 45,022 during the same month in 2014.

“Trading volume in October has already crossed 2014 figures and we are looking full-year within the range of 35-40 per cent over the period of 2014,” he added.

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