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Hong Kong’s inventory change operator made document income in 2024 as a inventory market rally and listings revival helped put an finish to a two-year stoop for the monetary hub.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing reported full-year income of HK$13.1bn (US$1.7bn) on Thursday, topping the earlier document of HK$12.5bn set in 2021 amid a pandemic-era buying and selling increase.
Fourth-quarter income rose 46 per cent yr on yr to HK$3.8bn. Revenues elevated by a 3rd to HK$6bn.
The outcomes have been boosted by an increase within the common day by day turnover of securities traded on the change — a key income driver for the corporate — as traders returned to Hong Kong shares after Beijing introduced a sequence of stimulus measures final autumn.
“HKEX achieved important strategic progress” final yr, chief government Bonnie Chan stated in an announcement, including that there have been “encouraging indicators of financial revitalisation” akin to China’s stimulus insurance policies and rate of interest cuts in different markets.
The outcomes mark the primary full yr of Chan’s tenure following the departure of Nicolas Aguzin, a former star JPMorgan banker, final yr.
Headline common day by day turnover on the change final yr was HK$131.8bn, a 26 per cent improve from 2023.
Charges from buying and selling, clearing and settlement — amongst HKEX’s most vital sources of income — rose to HK$11.9bn, up from HK$10bn the earlier yr.
HKEX listed 71 new corporations final yr and reclaimed its slot as a top-four IPO market after slipping down world rankings in 2023. The change raised HK$190.3bn in funds, together with HK$87.5bn from IPOs, a rise of 88 per cent from the earlier yr.
Excessive rates of interest within the US, which translate on to Hong Kong as a result of territory’s greenback peg, had depressed dealmaking within the metropolis. Coupled with its publicity to China’s financial slowdown, town’s capital markets entered a chronic stoop.
However prior to now 12 months, HKEX shares have risen almost 48 per cent, forward of a 42 per cent rise within the benchmark Hold Seng index.
Final yr, mainland Chinese language authorities stepped up assist for Hong Kong’s capital markets, increasing the scope of the Inventory Join buying and selling hyperlink with the mainland and expressing assist for increasing use of the renminbi within the particular administrative area.
The change additionally ended the observe of suspending buying and selling throughout typhoons, a much-loved anachronism for lots of the metropolis’s finance professionals however one which was criticised for making the change much less globally aggressive.
At first of this yr, the London Steel Change, owned by HKEX, confirmed it had permitted Hong Kong as an LME warehouse location.
