Hong Kong Exchanges profit surges 73 pct in H1

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) on Wednesday disclosed that its first half profit of 2015 surged 73 percent to 4.095 billion HK dollars.

The financial markets in Hong Kong experienced high volatility in the first half of 2015, HKEx Chairman Chow Chung Kong said.

For the first six months of the year, the group's consolidated revenue and other income surged 48 percent to reach 6.85 billion HK dollars.

The average daily turnover in the securities market and the average daily trading volume of futures and options in the derivatives market were 125.3 billion HK dollars and 808,377 contracts for the first half of 2015, an increase of 99 percent and 54 percent respectively as compared with the same period last year.

HKEx declared an interim dividend of 3.08 HK dollars per share, which is 90 percent of the profit attributable to shareholders.

The total revenue and other income generated by Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect during the first half of 2015 was 115 million HK dollars.

Chow said the bourse is working with mainland authorities for the new cross border trading link with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect).

"With multiple and complex challenges facing the world economy, the performance of the global financial markets, with Hong Kong being no exception, is subject to uncertainties in the second half of the year," said Chow.

"We will continue to work closely with our regulators and market participants to enhance our platforms so they remain reliable and able to accommodate potential market growth," Chow said, adding that the group will stay vigilant and strive to enhance its competitiveness further by introducing new products to meet market needs. (1 U.S. dollar equals 7.75 HK dollars) Endi