Dubai's two stock markets on Sunday started to trade on a single platform in a bid to consolidate the markets. Nasdaq Dubai announced that all trading in its listed equities is now being done through the platform of the larger Dubai Financial Market (DFM), in a statement.
"The move, under preparation since December 2009, is part of a consolidation between the two exchanges," it said. "This new structure brings together more than half a million individual investors on DFM with Nasdaq Dubai's institutional investors, many of them based outside the region," said Jeff Singer, chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai.
DFM, Dubai's main exchange, acquired two-thirds of Nasdaq Dubai in May, the statement said. DFM had placed a 121-million-dollar offer in December to buy the exchange.
Nasdaq Dubai will remain a separate exchange regulated to international standards by Dubai Financial Services Authority, while DFM is regulated by the Securities and Commodities Authority of the United Arab Emirates. The most traded equity on Nasdaq Dubai is DP World, the port operator which is mostly owned by Dubai's troubled Dubai World group.