Dubai Financial Market (DFM) hosted a virtual webinar titled “A Guide to DFM Equity Futures”, in collaboration with BH Mubasher Financial Services P.S.C, a leading company in the UAE’s financial market.

Speaking at the webinar were Khalifa Rabba, DFM’s Chief Operating Officer and Ma’an Al Bostami, Chief Operating Officer for BH Mubasher. The webinar has attracted numerous investors, brokers as well as other market participants.

The webinar covered a range of topics including: an introduction to the Equity Futures, the key benefits and opportunities of equity derivatives including diversification, hedging and leveraging, and the market maker’s role and responsibilities, followed by an open Q&A session with attendees.

On the topic of the key benefits and opportunities of equity futures, Ma’an Al Bostami touched on the platform being more cost effective for investors. He also spoke about the opportunities for short selling and hedging, where portfolio managers and investors will be able to hedge their existing market exposure, either increasing or decreasing their exposure to volatility of the underlying equity.

Discussing the market maker’s role and responsibilities, Al Bostami explained that the role of the market maker is to provide liquidity to the market, by continuously quoting a bid and offer price on the exchange.

Khalifa Rabba, Chief Operating Officer of DFM said: “The DFM is committed to diversify investment opportunities providing its investors with various services and mechanisms in line with best practices to reinforce trading activity. The introduction of equity futures gives further impetus to DFM’s strategy to diversify product offerings and attract more investments.

“We are confident of equity futures’ prospects considering investors’ growing demand for diversified financial instruments and multiple asset classes as well as the strong participation from brokerage firms, with BH Mubasher at the forefront, in trading and market making activities,” Khalifa Rabba added.

Al Bostami, added, “We would like to thank DFM for their support and collaboration for this webinar, to provide insight to the Equity Futures platform. Webinars such as this are an opportunity to reflect the work that BH Mubasher does in the financial industry in the region, whilst educating the public on important financial topics and matters.”

The webinar aims to educate people on the Equity Futures platform and its role in the region’s financial market, and DFM and BH Mubasher are keen to raise awareness of the platform and encourage clients to understand and invest in the initiative.

It is noteworthy that the DFM currently provides futures contracts on single stocks of five of the most liquid equities listed on DFM including: Emaar Properties, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, Emaar Development and Emaar Malls, with tenures of 1, 2 and 3 months. The DFM plans to expand equity futures opportunities with the launch of three new contracts on individual stocks of Aramex, Air Arabia and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (DU) on 18 April 2021.