Dubai Financial Market sees small Q4 net profit

Dubai Financial Market sees small Q4 net profit

Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Arab world's only listed bourse, eked out a small fourth-quarter profit as it focused on new revenue streams and cut its dependency on commissions after a year of dwindling trading volumes.

February 27, 2012 1:02 by Reuters

DFM had a quarterly net profit of 0.39 million dirhams ($106,200), down from 1.12 million dirhams in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters calculations.

Two analysts polled by Reuters estimated a profit between 0.3 and 1 million dirhams.

DFM Group, which includes Nasdaq Dubai, reported full-year revenues of 176.5 million dirhams on Sunday and a 2011 net loss of 6.9 million dirhams, compared to a net profit of 78.9 million in 2010.

DFM index booked losses of 17 percent in 2011, making it the worse-performing Gulf bourse.

New revenue streams include real time data selling, listing fees, online advertising and cash dividend distribution on behalf of listed companies.

Essa Kazim, chief executive of DFM said in the statement that future plans for the bourse include short selling, market maker, trading covered warrants, trading rights issues and stock swap agreements.

Trading value last year through DFM was less than half of total turnover in 2010 and less than 10 percent of its pre-crisis level of 379 billion dirhams in 2007.

Shares in the firm rose 8.5 percent to 0.997 fils per share on Sunday, a 15-week high, ahead of the results announcement. ($1 = 3.6730 UAE dirhams) (Reporting by Nadia Saleem; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) *image from topnews.ae