Dubai bourse crosses $1tr mark

The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) said Monday it reached in April a total trading volume of 24.5 million contracts, valued at 1.025 trillion U.S. dollars and a first since the market's inception in 2005. The DGCX said in an e-mailed statement the major milestone achieved in its eighth year of operation, comes on the back of a substantial year-on-year volumes growth of 139 percent in April. Volumes in April totalled 1,336,942 contracts, valued at 48.73 billion dollars. Gary Anderson, the chief executive officer DGCX, said "We are encouraged by the sustained high growth we have had in 2013, which provides us a strong foundation for achieving our strategic goals this year." With a year-on-year increase of 145 percent, Indian Rupee futures registered a total monthly volume of 1,223,960 contracts. Euro futures also saw a strong performance with a 325 percent increase from last year. Derivative contracts listed on the DGCX are futures on gold and silver, 7 currency exchange rates, 3 types of crude oil, 2 base metals and 2 options with gold and Indian Rupee as underlyings. The DGCX is the only international derivatives market in the time zone between Europe and East Asia. Based in the Dubai's commodity free zone DMCC, the U.S. dollar -- and not the Emirati- Dirham -- is the official currency while the exchange adheres to internationally accepted standards. Because 20 percent of the world's gold trade valued at 70 billion dollars flows through Dubai, banks, asset managers and jewelry owners in Dubai use products listed on the DGCX to hedge themselves against price and foreign exchange fluctuations.