The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has reported steady results for the first half of its financial year, as it continued to benefit from diversification efforts across the business segments and asset classes.
Africa's largest stock exchange, the JSE, saw its profits remain stable in the six months ending June, with non-trading activities now contributing approximately 39% of its operational income.
The group has maintained strong cash generation, with net cash from operations rising 3% to R502.6 million, compared to R487.9 million in 2023.
This performance was achieved despite facing a challenging macro-economic, political, and trading environment.
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) experienced a slight year-on-year decline of 0.2%, settling at 606c for the first half of 2024. However, net cash from operations increased by 3% to R502.6 million.
Operating income rose by 4% to R1.5 billion, reflecting the JSE's success in diversifying its revenue streams amid ongoing delistings.
This includes its Information Services division, which focuses on the promotion, licensing, and sale of data and statistics, as well as JSE Investor Services (JIS), which offers share registry services, among other things.
The JSE reported a 4.2% increase in operating income, driven by the strong performance of its diversified business segments and asset classes.
This growth offset a 12% decline in equity value traded, the JSE’s largest market.
JSE Investor Services (JIS) saw a 28.9% growth, commodity derivatives revenue increased by 24.7%, and revenue from bonds and interest rate trading rose by 7.8%.
“These results reflect our segment and asset class diversification as well as strategic progress in growing non-trading income, which now represents 39% of total operating income,” says Leila Fourie, the Group CEO at the JSE.
“We are pleased with the progress we have made as we continue to structurally improve our performance over time through innovation and collaboration. The JSE continues to pursue innovation with an emphasis on data, sustainability and advances in technology,” said Fourie.
Over the period, the JSE saw continued growth in sustainability products with eight new sustainability bonds listed, bringing the total to 76 listed sustainability bonds; as well as 100% growth in the number of Actively Managed Exchange Traded Funds (AMETFs).
Additionally, the exchange is on track to complete its core market data-to-the-cloud transition by the end of the year, in line with its Information Services growth strategy.
The exchange has expanded its analytics-as-a-service capabilities to global exchanges and their ecosystems, as well as delivered Colo 2.0, a cloud-based colocation service that offers brokers lower trading latency.
Moreover, there has been good progression in the development of the central clearing for the bond electronic trading platform (ETP) through JSE Clear.
Looking ahead
“After a slow start to 2024, value traded in our equity market started to recover in the second quarter with the trend extending into July. Higher trading activity has been reflective of positive market sentiment stemming from the outcome of the National Elections and the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU),” said Fourie.
“We remain on track to deliver on our group’s strategy to position the JSE as a diversified and sustainable exchange, through next generation technology, expanding our range of products and services, entering new markets, providing fair and transparent regulation, and strengthening our operational capabilities,” Fourie said.
Shares are up over 12% over the past year, to around R103.67 on Thursday, 8 August 20024.
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