Dubai exchange plans to launch EM currency products

The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) has said it plans to launch a wide range of Emerging Market (EM) currency products, targeted at Middle East customers.
In the pipeline are three new currency futures including South African Rand, Russian Rouble and the Korean Won, all of which are set for launch in Q3 2014.
Among other EM products, DGCX plans to add the MSCI India Index futures to its equity suite in Q4 2014.
The exchange will also re-list Options contracts on its Indian Rupee futures on July 18, 2014, says a report.
DGCX's new trading platform, EOS, has recently been enhanced to facilitate multi-currency trading, listing of options, physical delivery and improvements in margining efficiency.

The enhanced platform is expected to further support volume growth on the exchange whilst continuing to meet the increasingly demanding trading requirements of DGCX members.

The exchange said it crossed 5 million contracts in the first half of the year. It ended H1 2014 with over 5.75 million contracts, with a value of over USD 172 billion.
Currency futures traded 5.34 million contracts in H1, valued at USD 157 billion.
Precious metal contracts were the highlight of the first half, growing 7 percent from last year to a total of 283,138 contracts, valued at USD 11 billion.
Other contracts that performed well in H1 included the S&P BSE SENSEX futures contract, which totalled more than 1,00,000 contracts in the 10 months of trading since launch.

Key performers in the month of June 2014 included the Gold futures contract, which grew 21 per cent from the previous year, reaching a total of nearly 36,000 contracts.
In June, the S&P BSE Sensex futures recorded its second highest ever monthly volume of 19,666 contracts and Copper futures its second highest monthly volume in the last 12 months at DGCX.
Trading in WTI futures grew 62 per cent from last year while Plastics futures rose 39 per cent in the exchange.