On Thursday, CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange operator published its third-quarter results. During the period the firm experienced an increase in revenue despite sluggish trading activity.

Specifically, the firm reported a revenue of $904.2 million. When comparing this figure to the same time period one year ago, this is an increase of around 1.5 percent from $890.8 million.

Join the iFX EXPO Asia and discover your gateway to the Asian Markets

Operating income for the third quarter of this year came in at $549.9 million. This is down by 3.2 percent from the same time period last year, which had an operating income of $567.7 million.

During the third quarter, net income was $411.8 million, a jump of 25.1 percent year-on-year. Diluted earnings per share were also up on a yearly basis, coming in at $1.21, an increase of $0.91.

Commenting on the results, CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said: “The third quarter improved steadily from July to September, driven by strength in our interest rate, equities and metals product lines.”

“Our solid expense management contributed to adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of more than 20 percent in the third quarter… In addition, we have had an exceptional start to the fourth quarter, with growth in all six product areas and total volume up more than 40 percent compared with the same period a year ago.”

Average Daily Volumes Decline in Q3 for CME Group

In the third quarter of this year, the average daily volume was 15.6 million contracts. This is a fall of one percent compared to the third-quarter of 2017. It’s also the lowest figure experienced in the past five quarters.

The average daily volume for foreign exchange contracts was 944 thousand. This is 27 thousand fewer contracts than the same time period last year and an even larger decline of 91 thousand contracts from the previous quarter.

In fact, all product lines were down on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which includes equity, interest rate, metal and agricultural commodity contracts. Interest rate contracts experienced the biggest drop in the number of contracts traded – going from 9,200 in the second quarter of this year, down to 7,798 in Q3. This represents a fall of 1,402 contracts quarter-on-quarter.