NASDAQ Dubai equities traded value rises 22% in 2010

Market share of regional brokers more than doubles to 43%
The value of equities traded on NASDAQ Dubai increased by 22% to 1.31 billion dollars in 2010, up from 1.07 billion dollars in 2009.

The increase was achieved during a challenging year for regional exchanges. NASDAQ Dubai was the best performing stock exchange in the UAE during the year, measured by percentage change of traded value from 2009.

Regional brokers gained market share of traded value on NASDAQ Dubai from international brokers in 2010. The regional brokers share more than doubled to 43%, up from 20% in 2009.

Jeff Singer, chief executive of NASDAQ Dubai, said: “The activity of regional brokers accelerated after July 2010, when NASDAQ Dubai began using the trading platform of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) for all its equities trades. This demonstrates the success of NASDAQ Dubai in building a market that is regional as well as international.”

Eight regional brokers became Members of NASDAQ Dubai in 2010, bringing the total number of Members on the exchange to 35. Of these 22 are regionally based and 13 have their headquarters outside the region, including most of the world’s large investment banks.

NASDAQ Dubai outsourced its trading, settlement, clearing and custody functions for equities to DFM in July as part of a strategy to increase trading of its equities by individual investors and merge them in one liquidity pool with institutional investors.

The FTSE NASDAQ Dubai UAE 20 index ended 2010 at 1,801, down 2.7% from the end of 2009.

The index tracks 20 liquid stocks listed on DFM, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai. It has been designed as a hedging and investment mechanism for GCC and international investors.