Dubai Financial Market trading value reaches AED162bn in the first nine months of 2026
Direct answer
DFM reported AED162 billion in traded value, up 22 percent year on year, average daily value of AED883 million and 3.16 million trades. Market capitalisation reached AED993 billion at September-end, while 55,460 new investors joined and 72 percent were international.
- Editorial author
- Horizon Strategies
- Published
- Last verified in the editorial record
- Scope
- United Arab Emirates · Capital Markets, Financial Services, FinTech & Investor Relations
Source date: 2026-10-29. This is separate from Horizon publication.
Limits and what this does not prove: Before commitment, verify: Full DFM financial statements and a normalised operating-profit bridge excluding one-off items; Issuer-level liquidity, turnover, valuation, ownership and capital-raising evidence relevant to a specific decision; Sustained international and institutional participation, new listings and digital-access outcomes beyond aggregate nine-month figures.
DFM’s nine-month indicators show stronger trading and international participation, while the profit comparison requires a one-off adjustment.
What changed
DFM reported AED162 billion in traded value, up 22 percent year on year, average daily value of AED883 million and 3.16 million trades. Market capitalisation reached AED993 billion at September-end, while 55,460 new investors joined and 72 percent were international.
Dubai Financial Market reported AED162 billion in trading value for the first nine months of 2026, up 22 percent year on year. Average daily trading value reached AED883 million, up 25 percent, and the exchange recorded 3.16 million trades, up 24 percent. Market capitalisation stood at AED993 billion at the end of September, while the DFM General Index closed at 5,960.54, down 1.4 percent from the start of the year.
DFM added 55,460 new investors during the period and said 72 percent were international, taking its investor base above 1.3 million. Institutional investors represented 73 percent of traded value and foreign investors 51 percent. These figures provide evidence of exchange participation and liquidity; they do not measure the whole Dubai or UAE economy, foreign-direct-investment flows, issuer fundamentals or the executable liquidity of every listed security.
Profit before tax was AED586.4 million, compared with AED930.8 million in the first nine months of 2025. The prior period included an AED461.9 million one-off gain from a property sale, so the headline decline is not a clean operating comparison. Issuers, investors and service providers should review the full statements, normalise exceptional items and then examine security-level turnover, ownership, valuation and capital-raising evidence for the decision at hand.
Business impact
- DFM reported AED162 billion of trading value in the first nine months of 2026, up 22 percent year on year, with average daily value of AED883 million and 3.16 million trades.
- Market capitalisation reached AED993 billion at September-end; 55,460 new investors joined, 72 percent of them international, while institutional investors represented 73 percent of trading value and foreign investors 51 percent.
- Profit before tax was AED586.4 million versus AED930.8 million in the prior period, whose figure included an AED461.9 million one-off property-sale gain, requiring a normalised comparison.
Watch next
- Full DFM financial statements and a normalised operating-profit bridge excluding one-off items
- Issuer-level liquidity, turnover, valuation, ownership and capital-raising evidence relevant to a specific decision
- Sustained international and institutional participation, new listings and digital-access outcomes beyond aggregate nine-month figures
What the evidence supports
- Trading value reached AED162bn, up 22%, with average daily value of AED883m.
- Market capitalisation was AED993bn at September-end; the index was down 1.4% year to date.
- DFM added 55,460 investors, 72% international; institutions represented 73% of traded value.
- The 2025 profit comparator includes an AED461.9m one-off property-sale gain.
Horizon interpretation
Why it matters commercially
The indicators point to deeper market activity and international participation, supporting capital-markets, IR and digital-investment services. They do not measure the whole economy or guarantee future liquidity; the profit comparison also requires adjustment for a 2025 one-off property-sale gain.
Questions before acting
- 1Which issuer, security, transaction or market service is the aggregate DFM signal intended to inform?
- 2What does the normalised profit bridge show after removing exceptional items from the comparator?
- 3Which security-level liquidity, ownership, valuation and regulatory evidence is required before acting?
Source and editorial position
Trading, market-capitalisation, index, investor-composition, profit and retail-sukuk figures are attributed to Dubai Financial Market through Emirates News Agency on 29 October 2026. Horizon does not treat them as a measure of the whole economy or FDI, a guarantee of future liquidity or issuer performance, and explicitly separates the AED461.9 million 2025 one-off property-sale gain from a like-for-like operating comparison.
Evidence and decision receipt
What is verified, what remains conditional and what the company can do next
Evidence retained
1
The original Emirates News Agency / Dubai Financial Market record is retained with its publication date and direct source route.
Decision context
United Arab Emirates · Capital Markets, Financial Services, FinTech & Investor Relations
Published evidence and Horizon interpretation remain visibly separated.
Unresolved before commitment
Before commitment, verify: Full DFM financial statements and a normalised operating-profit bridge excluding one-off items; Issuer-level liquidity, turnover, valuation, ownership and capital-raising evidence relevant to a specific decision; Sustained international and institutional participation, new listings and digital-access outcomes beyond aggregate nine-month figures.
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