The stock exchange operator, Euronext, has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2018. The company saw a significant increase in revenue, with inflows from trading and market data services both up.

Commenting on the results, Stephane Boujnah, Euronext’s CEO, said: “The first quarter of 2018 marked a strong start to the year, with very high revenue capture from trading activities in a volatile environment and good performance from our market data and indices businesses.”

Euronext finished the first quarter of 2018 with 126.6 million euros ($150.99 million) in revenue. This year, that figure increased to 146.7 million euros ($174.97 million), representing 15.9 percent year on year growth.

Growing revenues were, fortunately for the company, not matched by parallel growth in operational expenses. These did increase by 4.3 percent, from 56.1 million euros ($66.9 million) to 58.5 million euros ($69.77 million), but this was substantially lower than the increase in total revenues.

FastMatch Growth

This meant the firm was able to finish this year’s first quarter with increased year-on-year profit. Operational expenditure, added to depreciation and amortization costs, meant the firm finished the quarter with 57.3 million euros in post-tax profit. This was a 30.6 percent increase on last year when the firm ended March with 43.9 million euros in post-tax profit.

One of Euronext’s newest acquisitions, FastMatch, also saw increased revenues. The FX electronic communication network, which Euronext took a 90 percent stake in last May, saw increased revenues of 5.2 million euros - up from 4.4 million euros the previous quarter.

Average daily trading volumes on FastMatch also grew from $17.7 billion at the end of the firm’s last quarter to $20.2 billion this quarter. This represented a 14.3 percent increase.