HKEX reports its best quarter on record, as a booming stock market and increasing IPOs lifted fortunes at world’s most valuable exchange
- HKEX’s net income jumped 70 per cent to HK$3.84 billion (US$494.7 million), or HK$3.03 per share in the period ended March
- The bourse saw an 86 per cent surge in daily market turnover of HK$224.4 billion buoyed by an inflow of global capital seeking and mainland Chinese funds
Net income jumped 70 per cent to HK$3.84 billion (US$494.7 million), or HK$3.03 per share in the three months to March 31, trailing the HK$4.11 billion consensus in a Bloomberg survey of analysts. Revenue for the quarter jumped 49 per cent to HK$5.96 billion, beating market forecasts of HK$5.93 billion.
“HKEX has had a strong start to 2021,” the exchange’s interim chief executive officer Calvin Tai said in a statement. “This was driven by a buoyant IPO market and very robust trading volumes, with headline average daily turnover and stock connect having their best quarter ever.”
HKEX shares dropped 0.2 per cent to close at HK$488.8 after the earnings report. They have surged 96 per cent over the past 12 months, outpacing the Hang Seng Index’s 18 per cent advance.
Total listing fees rose 20 per cent to HK$591 million during the first three months of the year, it added. The exchange hosted 32 IPOs which raised HK$136.6 billion of proceeds, a ninefold jump from a year earlier.
HKEX also generated a net investment income of HK$418 million during the quarter from its portfolio of global stocks and bonds, reversing a HK$47 million loss a year earlier.
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