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Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator made record profits in 2024 as a stock market rally and listings revival helped put an end to a two-year slump for the financial hub.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing reported full-year profits of HK$13.1bn (US$1.7bn) on Thursday, topping the previous record of HK$12.5bn set in 2021 amid a pandemic-era trading boom.
Fourth-quarter profits rose 46 per cent year on year to HK$3.8bn. Revenues increased by a third to HK$6bn.
The results were boosted by a rise in the average daily turnover of securities traded on the exchange — a key revenue driver for the company — as investors returned to Hong Kong stocks after Beijing announced a series of stimulus measures last autumn.
“HKEX achieved significant strategic progress” last year, chief executive Bonnie Chan said in a statement, adding that there were “encouraging signs of economic revitalisation” such as China’s stimulus policies and interest rate cuts in other markets.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Chan said the emergence of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model had been a “catalyst in terms of attracting investors’ attention” to Chinese tech companies and had boosted trading volumes in Hong Kong in the current quarter.
“If you are a fund manager . . . you really need to at least turn your attention to it and study it, and the moment they begin to do that they realise that . . . there are all these exciting technology companies in AI, new energy, in a lot of different spaces in China and by the way they’re very cheap valuation-wise,” she said.
The results mark the first full year of Chan’s tenure following the departure of Nicolas Aguzin, a former star JPMorgan banker, last year.
HKEX listed 71 new companies last year and reclaimed its slot as a top-four initial public offering market after slipping down global rankings in 2023.
The exchange raised HK$190.3bn in funds, including HK$87.5bn from IPOs, an increase of 88 per cent from the previous year.
In the past 12 months, HKEX shares have risen nearly 48 per cent, ahead of a 42 per cent rise in the benchmark Hang Seng index.
Last year, mainland Chinese authorities stepped up support for Hong Kong’s capital markets, expanding the scope of the Stock Connect trading link with the mainland and expressing support for expanding the use of the renminbi in the special administrative region.
Chan said a southbound renminbi counter — which would allow mainland investors to buy stocks in Hong Kong in their own currency — would be operational “hopefully before the end of the year”.
“From an HKEX perspective, the focus is really to create more products which would be RMB denominated,” Chan said.
The exchange also ended the practice of suspending trading during typhoons, a much-loved anachronism for many of the city’s finance professionals but one that was criticised for making the exchange less globally competitive.
