Foreign investors made up 50% of all trading activity on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) by the end of 2024, accounting for 85% of all investors registered with the bourse, according to a new report by HSBC. The growing international participation is propelling Dubai toward its goal of becoming one of the world’s top four financial hubs.
The DFM outperformed broader emerging market indices, offering a 4.9% annualized return in US dollars, compared to 2.8% from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.
Supporting this growth is a sharp increase in the number of wealth and asset managers operating in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), which rose 16% year-on-year to 410. This includes 75 hedge funds, of which 48 manage more than $1 billion in assets, HSBC noted.
Dubai also played a major role in global equity markets, accounting for 2.2% of total IPO volumes worldwide in 2024. The city hosted the year’s largest tech IPO with 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 also increasingly turning to Dubai for financing, with over $22 billion in debt listed on local exchanges by the end of 2024. The total value of outstanding sukuk across Nasdaq Dubai and DFM reached $97.8 billion.
Sukuk issuance across all currencies surged 42% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 to $4.71 billion, making up 76% of all debt capital market activity on Nasdaq Dubai, according to the report.
HSBC has played a significant role in this financial expansion, leading 65% of total IPO deal value in UAE markets between 2022 and 2025 year-to-date. In 2024, the bank served as Joint Global Coordinator on two of DFM’s three IPOs and introduced a stabilisation mechanism during Parkin’s privatisation process.
