Nasdaq Dubai to trade Adnoc and Emaar futures

Nasdaq Dubai will today launch futures on Adnoc Distribution and Emaar Malls, in a move that will boost trading of single stock futures. Also, Adnoc Distribution will list on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange today (ADX).

“With businesses in different industry sectors and listings on different exchanges, Adnoc Distribution and Emaar Malls further diversify the opportunities for investors to hedge or take a position on our equity futures market, including making gains whether the value of the underlying share is falling or rising,” said Hamed Ali, the chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai. The fuel retailer Adnoc Distribution raised Dh3.1 billion in an initial public offering this month, while Emaar Malls, a unit of Dubai’s biggest listed property developer Emaar Properties, joined the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) in October 2014.

The trading of single stock futures on Nasdaq Dubai, which began in September 2016 with seven UAE-listed companies, will expand to 16 companies with the inclusion of Emaar Malls and Adnoc Distribution.

The single stock futures include Emaar Development, which was added in November following its floatation.

Nasdaq Dubai is extending its offerings in a bid to attract more investors to its derivatives market, where more than 2.9 million futures contracts have traded since it opened.

“We will maintain the expansion of our derivatives platform by adding further products based on UAE and other regional markets in coming months and years,” Mr Ali said.

Shuua Capital, which is the market maker for all Nasdaq Dubai’s single stock futures, will provide market-making services to the two new stocks.

In October, the Nasdaq Dubai and ADX said they agreed this year to launch a futures contract linked to the Abu Dhabi General Index, following a similar agreement with the DFM to start a futures contract linked to the DFM General Index, which would be traded on Nasdaq Dubai’s derivatives platform.