Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) has recorded its best H1 ever in its 13-year history, trading over 11,300,000 contracts so far in 2018, up 44% year-on-year (Y-O-Y). Traded value for the first six months of 2018 breached USD 250 billion for the first time too. The Exchange's record-breaking performance was sealed following a robust month of trading in June, which saw 2,046,806 contracts traded, up 74% from June 2017. June 2018 traded value reached USD 42.3 billion.

The best performing asset classes this year have been the currencies with the Indian Rupee (INR) and the G6 Currency futures most prominent. First-half INR volumes increased by 22% from last year, driven mainly by increasing hedging appetite in volatile markets. While volumes in G6 futures grew 97% Y-O-Y to reach 387,586 contracts. The growth in G6 Currency futures was confirmed in June as the DGCX successfully physically delivered a record USD 404 million upon the contracts' expiry. Other notable performers in 2018 include Dubai India Gold, Shanghai Gold and Chinese Yuan.

Speaking about DGCX's record-breaking H1, Les Male, CEO of DGCX, commented: "In the first half of 2018 DGCX achieved spectacular growth and major milestones. Not only have we broken our record for the overall volume and value of contracts traded in the first six months of a year, but we've also set new highs in terms of Open Interest (OI) on several products."

DGCX's OI has also climbed with an average of 301,119 contracts open throughout the first half showing an increase of 28% over the same period in 2017. OI is often seen as a barometer to measure the success and underlying strength of an Exchange.

Male continued: "While our exceptional results have been bolstered by geopolitical uncertainty throughout 2018, with traders seeking protection and various hedging mechanisms to mitigate their risk, they have also been driven by the Exchange's ability to enhance liquidity and widen investor participation in both established and new products. The positive response to our recently launched Shari'ah Compliant Spot Gold contract bears testament to this, and demonstrates our initiative towards further asset class diversity on the DGCX."

Since DGCX launched the world's only Shari'ah Compliant Spot Gold contract on March 29th, it has traded over 520 kilograms of gold worth USD 22 million. The product was the first exchange-listed Shari'ah compliant commodity product in the GCC, and currently the only Shari'ah compliant listed derivative in the world.

Male added: "We have also enhanced our trading and clearing platform this year in order to optimize the trading experience for our members. As we move into the second half of 2018, we will continue to focus our efforts on tapping similar opportunities, and we remain very confident of achieving further success in light of our extremely encouraging performance."

In March, DGCX upgraded its integrated trading and clearing solution from Cinnober Financial Technology to the latest version of its signature TRADExpress platform. The purpose was to streamline and speed up business development capabilities even further and to benefit from a more refined trade and market data protocol, leading to improved bandwidth usage.