NYSE owner ICE profit rises on high trading volume

NEW York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange posted a rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday (May 5), driven by higher trading volumes in several asset classes as interest hike expectations and the Ukraine war raised market volatility.

Demand for portfolio protection grew as sky-high inflation, the Russia-Ukraine war and expectations of interest rate hikes roiled markets.

The exchange operator said on Wednesday it planned to acquire Black Knight in a cash-and-stock deal that values the software and data analytics firm at US$16 billion, including debt.

Intercontinental Exchange’s first quarter performance follows strong earnings by rivals CBOE Global Markets and CME Group that sailed past Wall Street estimates as elevated volatility drove up transaction volumes of options and futures.

Net income attributable to the company was up nearly 2 per cent at US$657 million, or US$1.16 per share, for the 3 months ended Mar 31 from US$646 million, or US$1.14 per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, ICE, which runs futures and equities exchanges as well as clearing houses, data services and a mortgage origination business, earned US$1.43 per share, edging past analysts’ mean estimate of US$1.42 a share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

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Total revenue, excluding transaction-based expenses, rose nearly 6 per cent to US$1.9 billion, as revenue from exchanges business rose 2 per cent, fixed income and data services rose 8.7 per cent while mortgage tech arm fell 13.5 per cent. BLOOMBERG