The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) posted a stronger-than-expected first half, brushing off market volatility with double-digit growth in its core trading businesses and solid gains across fixed income, derivatives, and foreign exchange.
The group reported 7.8% organic revenue growth in H1, with the Markets division up 11.7% year-on-year. Trading activity surged across asset classes, supported by elevated volatility and institutional demand for risk management tools.
Fixed income revenues stood out, rising 17.9% to £777 million, led by Tradeweb, the electronic trading platform in which LSEG holds a minority stake. Average daily volumes across Tradeweb’s markets hit $2.6 trillion, reflecting a sharp uptick in client demand amid bond market whipsaws and rate uncertainty.
FX trading also posted a strong half. Revenues climbed 13.1% to £139 million, with both FXall and FX Matching platforms benefiting from heightened volatility and broader usage among buy- and sell-side participants.
In OTC derivatives, revenue rose 14.4% to £314 million, driven by higher clearing activity through SwapClear and ForexClear. With global regulation pushing more trades through central counterparties, LSEG’s clearing unit continues to act as a quiet engine for recurring income.
The equities segment was more modest, with a 4.4% gain to £205 million, bolstered by volumes on LSE Cash Equities, ETFs, and Turquoise. The company’s recently launched Digital Markets Infrastructure platform, developed with Microsoft, is now live, with initial client onboarding set to begin later this year.
“We have continued our strong and consistent growth track record, with a good performance from our subscription businesses enhanced by our leading markets platforms, which drove upside from increased volatility in the period,” said David Schwimmer, LSEG’s chief executive, in a statement.
Schwimmer noted that the group has improved margins as part of a broader operational overhaul, following the 2021 integration of Refinitiv. “We have built a business which is strategically aligned to a number of powerful growth drivers,” he added, pointing to demand for data across the digital economy, AI, and regulation-heavy markets.
Outside of trading, LSEG’s Data & Analytics segment rose 5.1%, while Risk Intelligence posted a 12.2% increase, underlining the group’s ambitions to become a full-spectrum infrastructure provider — well beyond just equities trading.
The results offer further validation for LSEG’s multi-year pivot from a traditional exchange into a platform-driven, data-heavy player, with strategic bets on cloud infrastructure and post-trade services starting to bear fruit. With 30 new clients added to its post-trade business, LSEG is pressing deeper into clearing, analytics, and compliance technology.