Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the Arab world's only listed bourse, said its third-quarter net loss more than tripled amid a sharp slump in turnover at the bourse.

DFM posted third-quarter net loss of 9.3 million dirhams ($2.5 million), compared with a loss of 3 million dirhams in the year-ago period, it said in a statement on the Dubai bourse Thursday.     

Analyts polled by Reuters on average expected third-quarter net loss of 1.5 million dirhams.

"The constant drop in trading values overshadowed the company's revenue, as trading value decreased by 52.2 percent during the first three quarters of this year," the statement said.

Traded value for the quarter fell to 5.2 billion dirhams, a 42.3 percent decline compared with 9.03 billion in the same period last year.      Total revenue for the first nine months of the year fell 29 percent to 145.1 million dirhams, DFM said.     

Turnover on Dubai's bourse is set to slump to a seven-year low in 2011, with this year's annual traded value likely to be less than a fifth of that of 2008. Its benchmark index  is down about 10 percent year-to-date and some 80 percent below a 2008 peak.

The exchange has not seen a single initial public offering of shares in more than three years. DFM shares have fallen 36 percent so far this year.  -Reuters