ASX
Company result
Good numbers, overall, from the monopolist exchange operator, however, to our mind better still is the framing.
We think the muted performance figures shown at the last half, depicting flat to down growth relative to FY20, in turn leading to a fairly sharp selloff in the ASX share price, was a function of a misunderstood market impact associated with the RBA’s monetary policy framework.
As such, the ASX detailing, via the below graph, that the vast majority of the business continues to be performing robustly, is excellent framing for investors. In other words, the growth moderation was confined to a fairly narrow set of segmentals associated with yield curve control, and quantitative easing, two things that are out of the ASX’s hands.
We suspect that approach is simply more digestible to the market, than examining the segmentals, as shown in the below supplementary revenue breakdown.
The key for us in the result was the improved cost growth guidance. The market never met a declining expense profile that it didn’t like, even if it is at the margin.
The number of FTE’s (and associated expenses) required to meet new product development (everything from shorter interval electricity futures associated with renewable technology impacts, new tech sector offerings in listed equities, plugging the 5yr bond futures gap, the engineers associated with the distributed ledger technology (blockchain) CHESS replacement program, improving the network reliability standards) had lifted appreciably over FY19 – FY21, and these pressures are now coming to an end.
Overall, a good result.
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