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Dubai Financial Market (DFM) Company today announced its financial results for the first quarter of the year ending 31st March 2019, reporting a net profit of AED28.1 million, a 43 percent decrease compared to AED48.9 million during the corresponding period of 2018.
The Company’s total revenue has decreased by 21 percent to AED77.9 million in Q1-2019 compared to AED99.1 million during Q1-2018. The revenues are comprised of AED39.5 million of operating income and AED 38.4 million of investment returns. Meanwhile, operating expenses reached to AED49.8 million during Q1-2019 compared to AED50.2 million during the same period of 2018.
It is noteworthy that the total value of DFM’s trading has decreased 41.4 percent during the first quarter of 2019 to AED11.9 billion compared to AED20.4 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
Essa Kazim, Chairman of the DFM Company said, "The DFM’s performance has relatively improved compared to the end of 2018 levels. The General Index rose 4.15 percent and the Market Capitalization has increased 2 percent, gaining AED7 billion to AED350 billion at the end of March 2019. Additionally, foreign investors have registered net purchases of AED680 million, while institutional investors registered net purchases of AED500 million. The DFM has attracted 654 new investors during the first quarter, including 64 institutions, lifting total number of DFM’s investor base to 843,778 investors. The DFM General Index has extended its gains to 11 percent year-to-date and we are looking forward to see further momentum during the coming period considering DFM’s world-class infrastructure and lucrative opportunities supported by the national economy’s dynamism and good growth rates."
"The first quarter of 2019 witnessed the implementation of new initiatives to further diversify DFM’s products and services in line with our 2021 strategy. Within this context and in conjunction with DFM’s 19th anniversary, we have launched the new organisational structure for post-trade services in line with international best practices. The structure enhances the Company’s ability to achieve stronger and sustainable growth as well as augmenting its leading position amongst regional markets. The DFM Company has completed the formation of Dubai Central Clearing & Depository Holding L.L.C, a holding company for Dubai Central Securities Depository LLC and Dubai Clear LLC for its post-trade services with Dubai’s Department of Economic Development. Taking into consideration the dynamism of capital markets sector characterised by opportunities and challenges alike, the new structure for post-trade services enables us to enhance operational efficiency and to better manage risk related to each function; this is quite important for any business and for DFM Company in particular as a publicly listed company," Essa Kazim added.
Commenting on DFM’s continuous efforts to introduce services supporting trading activity, Essa Kazim said, "The DFM has provided market participants with numerous services such as the "Allocation Account", which we introduced in a first step of its kind amongst regional markets. This service has witnessed an expansion since the beginning of the year with the implementation of trades with a total value in excess of AED20 million for an institutional fund manager. Currently, three DFM members are licensed to provide the service to their clients and we are processing applications from other brokerage firms that have applied for a similar license."
The DFM’s first transaction of Margin Liability Transfer was implemented during the first quarter of 2019. This new service was launched in line with the regulations introduced by the Securities and Commodities Authority of the UAE (SCA) on margin financing.
The DFM also launched the enhanced Foreign Ownership limits (FOL) webpage, providing market participants with real time FOL info every two minutes during the trading session about the "Actual" and a new column for "Available" ownership limits to own or to trade, which provides investors with enhanced levels of transparency.
As part of its strong commitment to empower gender balance and women on boards of listed companies, the DFM has launched its new eBoard platform, an online linkage between listed companies and UAE nationals looking to assume board memberships. The platform enables proficient UAE nationals to identify board membership opportunities on DFM listed companies and submit their nomination directly to these companies through the platform.
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