Headline profits for the year to March at the London Stock Exchange (LSE) were wiped out by a £484m impairment charge relating to the Borsa Italiana acquisition in 2007. But the underlying picture is brighter. Turnover rose from £546.4m to £671.4m and group operating profit before impairment charges rose 3.3 per cent to £274m.
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And despite tough conditions, the LSE steered through 160 new issues and topped the list of leading exchanges, with 21 international initial public offerings. Trading through its SETS trading system rose 15 per cent to 740,000 trades a day, although values fell 24 per cent - slightly more than the 22 per cent decline in the FTSE 100 index.
