By Martin Mou

Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. said Wednesday its first-quarter net profit rose 70% from a year earlier, when financial markets had been battered by the pandemic.

Net profit surged to 3.84 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$494.7 million), as revenue and other income climbed 49% to HK$5.96 billion, a record for the first quarter, the exchange operator said.

A China-fueled boom in trading and new listings was a driving factor behind the company's strong first-quarter results.

The headline daily trading turnover soared 86% to HK$224.4 billion, the highest ever for the quarter, while funds raised in initial public offerings in the city rose more than nine times to HK$136.6 billion, the third highest globally, HKEX said.

In early 2021, mutual funds from mainland China, which raised huge sums of money from retail investors seeking higher returns, poured into Hong Kong stocks for their relatively attractive valuations and for investments into companies which weren't listed on the mainland, such as Tencent Holdings.

The Asian financial hub also continued to host secondary listings of Chinese companies whose shares were already trading in the U.S., in addition to first-time listings. In February, Kuaishou Technology, a rival to TikTok, raised US$5.4 billion in its Hong Kong IPO, which was the world's largest in more than a year at the time.

Write to Martin Mou at martin.mou@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-28-21 0057ET