By  Paul Ploumis 08 Jul 2015  Last updated at  08:43:53 GMT

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) reported significant jump in trading volumes during the initial six months of the year. The exchange has also announced ambitious plans to launch several new contracts during H2 2015.

The H1 trading volumes on the exchange surged higher by 11% when compared with the corresponding six-month period in 2014. The total volumes exceeded 6.4 million contracts during H1 this year. The value of traded contracts amounted to over $185 billion. The Indian Rupee futures contract witnessed volume growth of 15% during this period. The volumes in this contract registered year-on-year growth of 38% in the month of June alone to total 904,044 contracts. The contract accounted for almost one-third of the total trading volumes during the month.

Similar jump in trading volumes was witnessed in other Indian Rupee futures products as well. Mini Indian Rupee contracts denominated in Euro registered 54% jump in trading volumes during H1 this year. Also, Mini Indian Rupee contracts denominated in Sterling Pound grew by 37%. During the month of June alone, the Mini Indian Rupee futures trading volume grew by 10%. The overall currency segment posted a growth of 41% during the first half of the year.

The products recently launched by the exchange also recorded robust trading volumes. The prominent among them were India Gold Quanto futures (85,684 contracts), Indian Rupee Quanto futures (4,218 contracts) and Mini Dubai Polypropylene futures (564 contracts).

Gaurang Desai, Interim CEO of DGCX stated that DGCX looks forward to diversify its product portfolio by launching new contracts in currency, hydrocarbon, precious metals, equity and agricultural segments during the latter half of the year. With the launch of these new contracts, the exchange aims to become the key player in the region’s derivatives market.