DUBAI, 6 April 2006 — The value of gold futures traded on the Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange (DGCX) surged 150 percent month-on-month in March to $733.05 million, as gold prices reached a new 25-year high, DGCX said yesterday.
It said $293.36 million worth of gold futures were traded in February.
DGCX gold futures for April 2006 expiry closed at a historic 25-year high of $585.70 on March 30, before easing to end the month at $581.60 an ounce.
Gold eased to $584.25/585.00 an ounce yesterday, compared with $585.90/586.80 in the US market and Monday’s new 25-year high of $591.50.
DGCX said it started trading silver futures contracts on March 28, 2006, with 1,158 contracts traded at a value of $12.70 million.
The DGCX July 2006 silver contract opened at $10.950 an ounce and scaled a high of $12.020 an ounce, before finishing the week to March 31 at $11.600 an ounce.
A total of 3,052 contracts were traded during the week.
Since the exchange opened in November, volumes in gold futures have increased rapidly, buoyed partly by the physical gold trade centered in Dubai.
The exchange will launch the Middle East’s first currency futures this year and hopes to start trading euro-dollar, yen-dollar and sterling-dollar contracts in May. Other contracts in the works include steel and fuel oil futures.
