INTL FCStone’s Dubai-based subsidiary, INTL FCStone Commodities DMCC is to serve as the market maker for the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract (DGSG), which will be available for trading beginning on 29 March, 2018.
The release of this contract is a first for DGCX, and will mark its entry into the Islamic Finance sector.
DGCX’s offering will be the first Sharia-compliant Gold product to be listed on a regulated trading platform in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The pending launch comes at an ideal time, as global Sharia investments currently total approximately USD2 trillion, with gold constituting a sizeable portion of those investments. Through the Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract, the DGCX seeks to spur institutional market participants to invest and trade in Sharia-compliant products. The contract is certified by reputed Sharia scholars and is compliant with the standards of The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions.
Barry Canham (pictured), Global Head of INTL FCStone’s Precious Metals Division, says: “We are proud to serve as the market maker for DGCX’s Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract and eagerly anticipate its pending launch. Dubai and the MENA region more broadly are integral markets for our global Precious Metals business, and we look forward to promoting greater investment in the area alongside DGCX. Serving as market maker for the Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract further enhances the services that we offer to our customer base and increases our prominent leadership position within the global bullion market.”
INTL FCStone’s Precious Metals Division provides clients with full-service trading capabilities and global access to metals markets through offices in London, Singapore, Shanghai, and Dubai. The Company specialises in serving bullion wholesalers and traders, refiners and smelters, government agencies, banks and financial institutions, jewellery manufacturers, and other industrial users of precious metals. INTL FCStone’s web-based physical gold trading platform, PMXecute+, has experienced volumes of approximately 83 tons of gold traded – worth more than USD3.5 billion – since its launch in February 2017.
Les Male, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, says: “We are excited to launch our Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract and to have INTL FCStone come on board as the market maker for the product. Given their deep expertise and capabilities in precious metals trading, INTL FCStone will bring much-needed liquidity to the GCC marketplace. There is already a tremendous amount of interest to hedge and invest in this product given the recent trends in global geopolitics, as well as the increased volatility in gold. This contract was designed keeping in mind the varied trading requirements of our customer base within the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region. Through our partnership with INTL FCStone, we seek to attract more global investment to this product. Gold remains a strong hedge against inflation as well as any financial market uncertainties, and is therefore a preferred asset within any prudent investment portfolio. We expect DGCX’s Sharia-compliant Spot Gold contract will have a wide appeal among investors in the region and worldwide.”
