LSE posts drop in H1 earnings

LONDON: The London Stock Exchange (LSE) posted a decline in earnings on a 9 percent drop in interim revenue from a year ago and said it expected competition in cash equities to remain intense and market conditions uncertain.

Pretax profit dropped to 79.4 million pounds ($131.3 million) for the six months to end-September from 127 million a year ago, the company said yesterday. Revenue fell to 310.9 million pounds.

LSE, like other long-standing European exchanges, has been losing market share to mulitalteral trading facilities such as Chi-X and BATS since pan-European regulation opened the market to competition in 2007.