MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) — The Moscow Exchange has announced record profits for the third quarter of 2014, due in the most part to the increased volume of currency trading resulting from the depreciation of the ruble.
"We are happy to report a second consecutive quarter of record net profit and operating income, demonstrating both the resilience of our business model to the challenging economic and market conditions, as well as our effective cost management,” said Alexander Afanasiev, CEO of the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) in a statement.
In figures released on Wednesday, MOEX reported a net profit of 4.1 bln rubles for the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 42.4% in comparison with June-September 2013, which saw a 2.9 bln ruble profit. The Exchange’s net profit for the nine months of January-September rose by 22.8% to a sum of 10.7 bln rubles.
Chief Financial Officer Evgeny Fetisov added, "MOEX delivered another set of strong results in the third quarter, with revenue increasing 16.3% year-on-year, supported by growth across nearly all our markets. Though the operating environment remained challenging, trading volumes across markets were strong, driven by market infrastructure reforms, new product launches, higher volatility and rising interest rates.”
MOEX also announced a drop in operating expenses of 17.9% to 2.2 bln rubles, and a jump in earnings per share of 41.1%, from 1.29 to 1.82 rubles.
Financial analyst Olga Naidenova told RBK.com that the figures were not unexpected: “It was predictable that the market would show good financial results, in part as a result of strong volatility and growth in the volume of transactions on the foreign exchange market.”
For the period of June-September, the most profitable sector remained the foreign exchange market, in which income from fees and commissions totaled 816.9 mln rubles, representing a year-on-year increase of 26.2%. In second place was the money market, which posted an income of 766.7 mln rubles and a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. Income from depository and settlement services increased 40.8% year-on-year to 766 mln rubles, and income from the equities market climbed 21.7% to 396.8 mln rubles.
Declines were experienced in the derivatives market, where income decreased by 3.2% to 363.9 mln rubles, while income from the bond market decreased by 28.5% to 213.9 mln rubles.
