HKEx profit up 1% to $1.24b

Clouded by worries about the European debt crisis, the global capital market experienced an extremely volatile period during July-September. As an integral part of the global market, Hong Kong was not exempt from the sell-off: our equities market’s total value was down 23 per cent between 30 June and 30 September; the HSI was down 21 per cent during the same period. Our volatility index increased from 18.54 points on 30 June to 42.77 points on 30 September.

Amid the market turmoil, the momentum for listing slowed down: a total of 22 companies (including 1 transfer from GEM) were newly listed on the Stock Exchange in the third quarter, compared to 28 companies (including 5 transfers from GEM) in the same period of 2010. However, turnover remained strong in both the Cash and Derivatives Markets. For the third quarter, the average daily trading value in the Cash Market reached $72.6 billion, up 17 per cent on a year-on-year basis. In the Derivatives Market, the average daily turnover reached 304,229 futures and index options contracts on the Futures Exchange and 348,598 stock options contracts on the Stock Exchange, up 49 per cent and 61 per cent respectively from the same period in 2010. Eight of the Futures Exchange’s index derivatives had record-high volume days in the third quarter.