Latest Exchange Results Show Mixed Data Fortunes

The London Stock Exchange did not break out figures for the second quarter of its calendar year, but reported an 8 percent increase in information services revenues for the first half of 2014 to £181.0 million ($285.1 million), mainly as a result of strong performance by the exchange’s FTSE index business—where revenue rose 10 percent over 2013 to £92.7 million ($145.9 million)—and products including UnaVista. However, revenue from real-time data fell 4 percent, mainly due to a 3 percent drop in the number of professional users of real-time UK data from 80,000 to 78,000, though the number of terminals consuming data from LSE’s Borsa Italiana market rose 1 percent to 129,000.  Total revenue jumped 15 percent to £592.6 million ($376.6 million), mainly as a result of its LCH.Clearnet clearinghouse, primary and secondary market activities, post-trade services in Italy, and technology products.

Canadian exchange TMX also recorded an 8 percent rise in data revenues to C$45.9 million ($40.48 million) in Q3, driven by audit recoveries from under-reporting of real-time data, as well as the appreciation of the US dollar against the Canadian dollar and higher revenues from datafeeds, low-latency infrastructure provider TMX Atrium and co-location services. Overall revenues also rose 3 percent year-on-year to C$170.2 million ($150.11 million) in Q3 compared to Q3 last year, mainly driven by increased numbers of listings and the information services business.

In Asia, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s market data sales rose by just under 8 percent to HK$194 million ($25.02 million) compared to the same period in 2013, thanks to new datafeeds introduced following the launch of its Orion Market Data Platform in the second half of 2013, and more demand for non-display data services. Overall HKEx revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 increased by almost 16 percent year-on-year to HK$2.47 billion ($320 million), driven mainly by higher trading volumes.

The Singapore Exchange, meanwhile, reported an 8 percent drop in overall revenue to S$169 million ($135.17 million), resulting from the negative impact of low volatility. Market data revenues were flat at S$8.6 million ($6.88 million) in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 last year, as increased derivatives market data distribution offset a decline in securities market data distribution. However, connectivity revenue rose 3 percent to S$10.6 million ($8.48 million), boosted by a 30 percent year-on-year jump in the average number of co-location racks in use at its datacenter.

Data revenues at the Japan Exchange fell 2 percent to ¥3.8 billion ($32.7 million) for its calendar Q2 compared to the previous year, though fees from co-location and proximity services rose 16 percent to ¥712 million ($6.13 million). Total operating revenue of ¥25 billion ($215 million) was also down by 2 percent from Q2 last year.