The Bahrain Financial Exchange (BFX), the first multi-asset exchange in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, proudly announces achieving a key milestone with the cumulative (single-side) trading turnover value crossing the USD 1 billion mark on the 24th of April 2012, with the total trading volume increasing to 24,046 contracts.
The highest (single-side) daily trading turnover was USD 58.27 million, with a trading volume of 1,189 contracts achieved on the 23rd of April 2012. The cumulative trading turnover of the BFX Futures reached the first USD 500 million milestone in 92 trading days; whereas, the next USD 500 million was achieved in the subsequent 16 trading days. This indicates the growth in the momentum of the trading activity, largely due to the narrow bid-ask spread and higher liquidity.
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Arshad Khan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the BFX and the BFX Clearing and Depository Corporation (BCDC), said: “We are proud to exceed the USD 1 billion total trading turnover volume mark. Witnessing such a remarkable growth represents a concrete proof for the effectiveness of our offerings across all the products. Moreover, we see this milestone as a direct result of our extensive business development initiatives cross all the MENA markets, and our ability to play a key role in directing the region towards a leading position in the fast growing financial markets. While continuing to grow our business, we will persist on drawing the world’s attention to our market via our unique and fully automated trading platform offering multi-asset financial instruments across conventional and Islamic finance product portfolio.”
The trading turnover for the period between the 1st and 24th of April 2012 was USD 523.44 million, an 11 times increase over the corresponding period in Dec 2011. During the same period, the trading volume has increased around 10 times, from 1,170 contracts to 11,150 contracts. Remarkably, the total trading turnover in April 2012 (till 24th April) was more than the total trading turnover from the launch date of the 23rd of Nov 2011 to the 31st of March 2012.
Since its launch date, the BFX Gold Futures contract has traded over 11.96 metric tonnes (384,672 troy ounces), with a trading turnover of USD 640.47 million (12,021 contracts). Trading on the BFX Gold Futures has increased by 13.38 times for the period between the 1st and 24th of April 2012, as compared to the corresponding period in Dec 2011. The total cumulative trading turnover on the BFX Euro Futures reached USD 263.23 million (8,003 contracts). Over 4,340,000 million British thermal units (mmBtu) of the BFX Natural Gas Futures (trading turnover of USD 10.87 million; volume of 1,736 contracts) have been traded. The cumulative trading turnover on the BFX Indian Rupee Index Futures – a unique and innovative product – has already reached USD 116.69 million (volume of 2,286 contracts) in a mere 31 trading days. The BFX Gold Futures contributed to over 62.11% of the total cumulative trading turnover and 49.99% of the total trading volume. The next most popular product was the BFX Euro Futures accounted for 25.53% of the total trading turnover and 33.28% of the trading volume.
The Open Interest in the BFX INR Futures Index April 2012 Futures reached 168 contracts on 26th April 2012 (contract maturity date), a 25.37% increase over the highest Open Interest in the March 2012 Futures (134 contracts on 21st March 2012). The open interest across all the BFX Futures peaked at 208 contracts on the 24th of April 2012.
The BFX is scheduled to launch other innovative products in the next months across various asset classes and instrument types. There has been an increase in interest from the international financial institutions for taking the BFX membership, particularly due to the attractiveness of the business-friendly environment of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the uniqueness of the BFX market.