Foreign investors accounted for 50% of all trading activity on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) by the end of 2024, representing 85% of all investors registered with the bourse,  according to HSBC.

The international appeal for Dubai’s capital markets is advancing its ambition of becoming a global top four financial hub.

The DFM offered higher returns than the broader MSCI EM Index, reaching 4.9% annualised US dollars, compared to 2.8% for the broader EM index.

Moreover, the number of wealth and asset managers operating in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) rose 16% year-on-year to 410. This includes 75 hedge funds of which 48 have more than $1 billion under management, HSBC said in a report.

Dubai accounted for 2.2% of global initial public offering (IPO) volumes and hosted the world’s largest tech IPO in 2024 for Talabat, a grocery and retail delivery platform.

“IPOs are enjoying strong, often record-breaking demand, while its leading debt capital markets hub status is providing an expanding universe of issuers with options to raise funding in both foreign and local currency,” said Samer Deghaili, Co-Head of Investment Banking, Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye, HSBC. 

Chinese corporations are increasingly favouring Dubai, with over $22 billion in debt on the exchange at the end of 2024.  The value of outstanding sukuk listed across Nasdaq Dubai and DFM reached $97.8 billion last year.

According to the report, sukuk issuance across all currencies rose 42% year-on-year to $4.71 billion in Q1 2025, accounting for 76% of all debt capital market activity on Nasdaq Dubai.

HSBC has led 65% of the total IPO deal value in the UAE’s financial markets between 2022 and 2025 year-to-date. During 2024, the bank was a Joint Global Coordinator on two of DFM’s three IPOs and introduced the inclusion of a stabilisation mechanism as part of Parkin’s privatisation.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)