Dubai Financial Market (DFM) has reported an 89 per cent drop in the fourth-quarter net profit as trading activity slumped amid slowing economy on the back of plunging oil prices.

DFM, the only listed stock exchange in the region, reported a net profit of AED15.5m ($4.22m) for the three months ending 31 December 2015, down from AED138.2m recorded for the same period in 2014. The full-year 2015 profit slipped to AED261m from AED759.3m from a year earlier period, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

The bourse traded AED151.4bn worth of shares last year, down 60 per cent on 2014, denting trading commissions, its main source of income, according to the DFM statement.

“This decline was prompted by some immediate circumstances unrelated to the sound fundamentals of the national economy, especially the decrease in oil prices as well as concerns about the slowdown in China and its impact on global economy, which affected various international markets,’’ company said in the statement.

Foreign investors’ activity on the exchange, however, has increased in 2015 and their share of trading increased to 48.6 per cent compared to 43.8 per cent in 2014.

The company has proposed a 5 per cent cash dividend for 2015.