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Stock exchanges’ combined net profit grew 6.9 per cent to Rs 844 crore in the first nine months of the financial year, up from Rs 789 crore over the same period in 2012-13.
The National Stock Exchange had a net profit of Rs 890 crore, the BSE of Rs 95 crore and the MCX Stock Exchange (MCX-SX) a net loss of Rs 140.5 crore, according to figures from exchange websites.
The NSE’s profit came on a total revenue of Rs 820 crore and was buoyed by exceptional items of Rs 231 crore. A spokesperson declined to share details of the nature of these items. However, notes to the financials suggest sale of shares in subsidiary and associate companies helped the profit.
BSE’s net profit of Rs 95 crore so far this year comes despite lower revenue of Rs 351.6 crore (compared to Rs 371 crore last year). it is also 43 per cent higher than the net profit in the same period last year, due to lower spending on incentive schemes. It cut spending on incentives for those trading on its platform from Rs 80.5 crore to Rs 49.6 crore. However, revenue from stock exchange operations fell only 3.6 per cent compared to a 38.3 per cent cut in incentives. A spokesperson declined to comment.
MCX-SX operations are said to have been hit by a curb on currency trading, with the exchange going from a profit of Rs 31.5 crore to a loss of Rs 140.5 crore. Nearly a fifth of its expenditure or Rs 47 crore was in the form of advertisement and business promotion expenses. A spokesperson said a large number of new product launches necessitated increased spending and the proportion of this as a percentage of overall expense was expected to be significantly lower in the days ahead.
“During this period, we launched the equity segment and our flagship index, SX40. The challenge was to make our presence and increase brand recall. In addition, we launched the debt/IRF segment. These challenges required a very high investment on awareness, as creating initial liquidity is resource-intensive. These investments have already tapered off month on month,” said the person.
