UAE’s second retail T-Sukuk begins trading on Nasdaq Dubai after 5.7x demand

The UAE Ministry of Finance has moved another step toward widening public access to sovereign debt markets, announcing the listing and start of secondary-market trading for its second five-year Sovereign Retail T-Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai.

The official announcement, published on 2 October 2026, followed the completion of subscription, allocation and settlement. The Ministry said the offering attracted subscription orders of AED285 million, about 5.7 times the AED50 million target issuance size. The instrument is designed for individual investors, with a minimum investment threshold of AED1,000, semi-annual profit distributions and trading through authorised brokers on Nasdaq Dubai.

The details matter for more than the headline oversubscription. According to the Ministry, 75% of subscription applications came from retail investors subscribing AED10,000 or less, while UAE nationals represented 69% of overall demand. The investor base also showed wide participation across 110 nationalities, with women accounting for 17% of total invested capital and young investors under 25 also participating. Nearly half of unique subscribers were returning investors from the inaugural tranche, indicating that the product is beginning to build repeat behaviour among savers.

The listing is part of a wider federal effort to deepen dirham-denominated capital markets, broaden participation in government investment instruments and strengthen the UAE’s position in Islamic finance. Earlier Ministry guidance placed the five-year T-Sukuk profit rate at 5.06%, with subscriptions open from 23 to 28 September 2026 and distribution channels including DFM eIPO, iVestor, the DFM app and participating banks. Emirates NBD acted as lead receiving bank, with Emirates Islamic, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank, Mashreq, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank among the participating receiving banks.

Secondary trading is the crucial development for investors. A retail sovereign instrument that can be bought and sold after issuance gives savers more flexibility than a locked product, while also supporting price discovery and market liquidity. Nasdaq Dubai and DFM said the launch demonstrates appetite for high-quality Shariah-compliant instruments among individual investors and highlighted the role of market making and trading infrastructure in widening access.

For the UAE’s financial system, the programme adds a new bridge between household savings and public debt-market development. It also gives banks and brokers another regulated investment product to distribute digitally, while reinforcing the infrastructure needed for future retail government offerings. The first tranche, announced earlier in 2026, was also heavily subscribed; the second tranche suggests that demand is not a one-off response but part of a developing retail fixed-income market.