Principal Activities

HKEX is a recognised exchange controller under the SFO. HKEX operates the only recognised stock and futures markets in Hong Kong through its wholly owned subsidiaries SEHK and HKFE and is the frontline regulator of listed issuers in Hong Kong. In collaboration with the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges HKEX operates Stock Connect which gives investors in Hong Kong and Mainland China access to each other's securities markets. HKEX also provides market data through HKEX Information Services Limited and HKEX Information Services China Limited.

Latest Results

The Group's profit attributable to shareholders for the year ended 31-12-2025 amounted to HKD 17.75 billion, an increase of 36.0% compared with previous corresponding period. Basic earnings per share was HKD 14.0471. A dividend of HKD 6.52 per share was declared. Turnover amounted to HKD 28.86 billion, an increase of 29.6% over the same period last year. (Announcement Date: 26 Feb 2026)

Business Review - For the year ended December 31, 2025

Primary market

Hong Kong led a rebound in the global IPO market in 2025, with the surge of listings being further accelerated by global demand for diversified growth opportunities, the evolution of frontier technologies in the region and local market reforms.

Hong Kong raised $286.9 billion from 119 IPOs in 2025, a 226 per cent increase on the previous year.Two of these listings were in the world’s top five IPOs of the year. New economy sectors accounted for 66 per cent of capital raised, including 21 listings under our Chapter 18 series of Listing Rules for biotech and specialist technology companies. We also expanded our IPO pipeline to include issuers from diverse regions, including Kazakhstan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Despite the strong momentum of the primary market in 2025, we continued to introduce reforms and initiatives to position Hong Kong for long-term growth. Together with the SFC, we launched the TECH, a dedicated platform facilitating listing applications for specialist technology and biotech firms.

Additionally, we made reforms to IPO price discovery and ongoing public float requirements, launched paperless listing reforms and strengthened partnerships with exchanges in Southeast Asia and the Middle East to foster a more interconnected marketplace for issuers.

Secondary market

It was a year of momentum for Hong Kong’s secondary markets, with record-setting ADV, as global capital flowed to Asia in search of diversified growth opportunities. Cash Market ADT reached $249.8 billion, an increase of 90 per cent year-on-year. 15 of the 20 most active trading days in our history took place in 2025.

HKEX’s Derivatives Market also had a record year, with ADV of futures and options reaching a record 1.7 million contracts, up 7 per cent year-on-year. Notably, stock options were among the most actively traded products, with ADV of 879,831 contracts, up 22 per cent from 2024. Building on the success of the previous year’s launch of weekly stock options, we introduced weekly expiries for six single stock option classes in 2025, meeting rising global demand driven by a growing and increasingly sophisticated class of retail investors.

The ETP market, including ETFs and L&I Products, has gone from strength to strength, with ADT nearly doubling year-on-year to $36.7 billion. During the year, HKEX welcomed Asia’s first Single Stock L&I Products, further enhancing product diversity and liquidity. A total of 48 new ETPs were launched during 2025, underscoring the diversity of HKEX’s product ecosystem.

Since the introduction of Severe Weather Trading arrangements in September 2024, our Securities and Derivatives Markets remained open during seven severe weather events which previously would have caused closures or stoppages. In 2025, we continued to deliver on enhancements that drive the conditions for increasing the accessibility and liquidity of our markets. Highlights include the implementation of Phase 1 of the minimum spread reduction, lowering overall transaction costs and enabling a more efficient price discovery process. In addition, we published a discussion paper exploring ways to accelerate settlement in the Hong Kong Cash Market and updated our stock settlement fee structure by removing both the minimum and maximum fee limits.

Strategic Development Review

In 2025, our activities were guided by our Group strategy. That strategy is underpinned by a priority to reinforce our China strength, and framed by three strategic imperatives, which include: enhancing our multi-asset ecosystem; future-proofing our technology and operations; and investing in adjacent capabilities.

Reinforcing our China Strength

For HKEX, our unique market connectivity to the Chinese Mainland is our greatest advantage as a global exchange. In 2025, we continued to reinforce it.

Enhancing Connect

The Connect programme is the backbone of Hong Kong’s role as a superconnector between the markets of the Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world. Over the decade since it launched, it has been continually expanded and refined.

In 2025, more enhancements were implemented, including allowing trades in interest rate swap contracts with a maximum tenor of 30 years, and the addition of 1-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR 1Y) into floating reference rate options, in Northbound Swap Connect; and the acceptance of China Government Bonds (CGBs) and Policy Bank Bonds held by international investors through Bond Connect as margin collateral for all OTC derivative transactions.

Expanding partnerships

We continued to strengthen our partnerships with fellow exchanges and other stakeholders in the Chinese Mainland and the Greater Bay Area. We signed an MOU with Guangzhou Emissions Exchange, Shenzhen Green Exchange and Macao International Carbon Emission Exchange to cooperate in accelerating the development of a carbon markets and green finance ecosystem in the region.

Enhancing our multi-asset ecosystem

While we have a strong focus on attracting high quality listings and enriching and innovating our cash equities and derivatives markets product offerings, we continued to make headway in adding other asset classes to our ecosystem.

FIC

In 2025, HKEX marked a new milestone in developing Hong Kong’s FIC ecosystem.

HKEX acquired a 20 per cent stake in CMU OmniClear, deepening its strategic partnership with the HKMA. This investment, following an MOU signed in March, will strengthen Hong Kong’s position as a global hub for bond fundraising, risk management and offshore RMB business–laying the foundation for a vibrant FIC marketplace that mirrors the depth and liquidity of the equities market.

Commodities

The LME also reported another strong year, with chargeable ADV of metals contracts traded on the LME registering an 8 per cent increase year-on-year. The LME, which launched its new trading platform, LMEselect v10, in March, also published a roadmap to modernise its options market with the aim of increasing liquidity and transparency.

The approval of Hong Kong as an official warehouse location by the LME marked a significant milestone for the LME’s global network and reach. By December, Hong Kong’s network of LME- approved warehouses had expanded to 14 facilities, highlighting the city’s ambition to become a global commodities trading hub.

Product network effect

While it is critical to build a broad multi-asset ecosystem, it is also essential that our offerings work well with each other. One example from 2025 is the launch of Hang Seng Biotech Index Futures. This not only offers investors a risk management tool for one of Hong Kong’s fastest-growing and most dynamic sectors, it also perfectly complements our existing suite of biotech-related offerings and flagship equity index derivatives.

Building a sustainable finance ecosystem

As we make progress in developing the breadth of asset classes in Hong Kong’s market ecosystem, we also continue to ensure the ecosystem is developing in a way that supports the sustainable finance needs of the region.

As a market regulator and operator, we support our community of listed companies with clear ESG standards, frameworks and guidance. 2025 saw progress on that front when the new climate-related disclosure requirements based on the IFRS Climate-related Disclosures Standards took effect. This supports the HKSAR Government’s vision of a set of local sustainability reporting standards that align with ISSB standards. We are now helping listed companies to adopt the new disclosure requirements through our ESG Academy and other advocacy and sharing platforms.

In addition to promoting robust ESG standards in Hong Kong’s markets, we also furthered sustainability through the LME, which announced its roadmap for the development of sustainable metal premium pricing for LME-approved brands, and introduced a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism emissions reporting requirement for all aluminium-listed brands.

We also launched Carbon Credits: A Buyer’s Guide, co-hosted the inaugural International Carbon Markets Summit, in partnership with the SFC, and hosted the Climate Finance Forum to drive industry conversations on climate finance and carbon markets.

These initiatives reflect our broader commitment to supporting the transition to a lowcarbon economy by enhancing transparency, building market confidence, and fostering greater participation in voluntary carbon markets.

Future-proofing technology and operations

In 2025, HKEX continued to make good on its commitment to ensure its platforms and market structure are resilient and adaptive to change, and make it as frictionless as possible to invest, trade and manage risk in Hong Kong’s markets.

Owning our technology destiny

With a strong engineering-centric, in-house technology team, HKEX is one of the few global exchanges that can own its technology destiny. At the core of our technology strategy is HKEX Orion, a proprietary technology capability that enables us to differentiate our platforms in increasingly competitive global marketplaces and to position Hong Kong’s capital markets for the future.

The financial industry gold standard HKEX Orion Cash Platform (OCP), has been undergoing a series of enhancements, with multiple new service releases becoming available for market participants in 2025. During the year, we also continued to make progress in applying the HKEX Orion framework to our derivatives markets, with the development of HKEX Orion Derivatives Platform (ODP). We hosted the HKEX ODP Townhall, introducing the timeline, roadmap and API specifications to exchange participants, options trading exchange participants, clearing participants, their software vendors, industry bodies and regulators. ODP is on target to launch by 2028.

Enhancing market infrastructure

To further enhance the liquidity and vibrancy of Hong Kong’s markets, HKEX implemented Phase 1 of its minimum spread reduction in 2025, lowering overall transaction costs and enabling a more efficient price discovery process. In addition, HKEX published a discussion paper exploring ways to accelerate settlement in the Hong Kong Cash Market and updated its stock settlement fee structure by removing both the minimum and maximum fee limits.

Strengthening international connectivity

In an increasingly multipolar world, where new sources of capital and opportunity are emerging, it is critical to strengthen the international connectivity of our operations, especially with strategically important regions. In 2025, we continued to make progress in enhancing the Group’s presence in the Middle East–opening an office in Riyadh, signing an MOU with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and establishing CPAL, a new HKEX subsidiary based in Dubai. At the same time, we continued to expand our network of partnerships in Southeast Asia, adding the Stock Exchange of Thailand as a Recognised Stock Exchange, which opens the door to cross-listings and other opportunities.

Investing in adjacent capabilities

In 2025, HKEX continued to explore and develop businesses that are adjacent and complementary to our core business.

Index Business

HKEX expanded its index portfolio with the launch of the HKEX Tech 100 Index–the Group’s first equity index focused exclusively on Hong Kong’s technology sector. The index tracks 100 prominent large and mid-cap companies spanning six innovative industries, demonstrating our ongoing commitment to building a thriving, innovation-centric capital market.

Fund services

We introduced an order routing service on the Integrated Fund Platform–a business-to-business fund service platform developed with the support of the HKSAR Government and the SFC. The new order routing service marks an important step in connecting key participants in the fund distribution lifecycle and enhancing the efficiency of Hong Kong’s fund management industry.

Business Outlook - For the year ended December 31, 2025

While we expect volatility in the macro landscape to persist in 2026, we also see cause for optimism in capital markets as global investors adjust to the ongoing uncertainty by seeking diversification and risk management opportunities. As critical financial market infrastructure, global exchanges have an important role to play in ensuring that capital and opportunity continue to connect as efficiently as possible.

At HKEX, we are confident that our efforts and investments in recent years will ensure our business remains competitive in this global landscape and will support Hong Kong in its role as a global IFC facilitating capital flows in Asia and between this region and the rest of the world. In 2026, we will continue to leverage our unique advantages, meet the evolving demands of global investors, and ensure our markets are accessible and competitive.

Source: HK Exchanges (00388) Annual Results Announcement