Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Wednesday announced its preliminary financial results for the first half of fiscal 2019 on a group level. The primary security exchange of the country has witnessed some strong growth during the period, with a large uptick in market activity across all of its businesses.
In the first half of fiscal 2019, ending in December 2018, the exchange achieved revenue of AU$424.7 million ($302.3 million), which is AU$26 million or 3.8 per cent higher on a year-on-year basis. On a like-for-like accounting basis, it is up by 6.5 per cent when compared to the first half of fiscal 2018.
The solid performance was recorded across all the business segments with strong volumes in derivatives and over-the-count (OTC) markets, Astraclear and collateral management activity.
Revenue for the derivative and OTC markets increased by 6.3 per cent, and futures volume increased by 5.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This resulted in an increase in total revenue from trading services on the exchange by 8.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis. The cash market trading revenue was higher by 15.2 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Commenting on the results, Dominic Stevens, ASX Managing Director and CEO, said:
“The result reflects the balanced approach we take to investing in the integrity of our core businesses and pursuing growth initiatives. It has allowed ASX to deliver another attractive return to shareholders, with our interim dividend rising 6.7% to 114.4 cents per share.”
“The key performance drivers of our businesses were a 38% increase in capital raised to $62 billion, underpinned by the demerger and listing of Coles; a greater than 5% rise in the number of futures contracts traded, particularly in SPI equity futures; an increase of more than 15% in cash market trading amid market volatility; and the continued expansion in the number and variety of financial market participants in ASX’s Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC), spurring demand for our technical and information services.”
Further, ASX is also eyeing growth from new data analytics platform that offers its clients access to data science and machine learning capabilities to solve complex problems. The platform has been made live and initially will only be applied for internal use cases before being made available to selected customers.
Stevens further added:
“The investment here will enable ASX to create analytics solutions for its customers. It will support access to data science and machine learning capabilities and offer a broad range of ASX and non-ASX datasets. The initiative will allow those who contribute data and analytics, to create in fact their own new revenue streams.”
