WAM Dubai, 14th March 2010 (WAM) -- Dubai Financial Market (DFM) announced today that its online trade service (E-trading) registered an impressive growth in 2009, as it continues to gain momentum amongst investors and brokers. E-trading accounted for over

WAM Dubai, 14th March 2010 (WAM) -- Dubai Financial Market (DFM) announced today that its online trade service (E-trading) registered an impressive growth in 2009, as it continues to gain momentum amongst investors and brokers. E-trading accounted for over two thirds of trading activity in 2009 compared to almost half of the exchange's trading in 2008, according to DFM statistics.

E-trading buy trades accounted for 67.4% of the total buy value in 2009 compared to 49.8% in 2008, while electronic sell trades accounted for 70.7% of the total value in 2009 compared to 53.2% In 2008. The total value of electronic buy trades reached Dhs117.06bn in 2009, while sell trades value reached Dhs122.6bn. DFM's total trading value stood at Dhs173.5bn in 2009.

The top five active brokerage firms utilizing E-trading in 2009 include: Direct Broker for Financial Services (Dhs17.2bn), EFG-HERMES Brokerage (Dhs14.9bn), MASHREQ Securities (Dhs12.9bn), Abu Dhabi Financial Services (Dhs11.9bn) and Islamic Financial Services (Dhs11.4bn).

Hassan Abdulrahman Al Serkal, Chief Operations Officer, Dubai Financial Market, said, "We are delighted to announce these encouraging statistics which indicates the evolving shift towards electronic trading as an effective and reliable tool for investors and brokers. DFM has always been committed to encouraging market participants to shift to E-trading by providing the necessary technical support to encourage brokerage firms to expand and optimize these tools." WAM/TF