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Shares of ASX, owner of Australia's stock exchange, climbed for a second day amid speculation the New York Stock Exchange was weighing it up as a takeover target.
Shares in the Sydney-based company, which on Thursday said it had no information supporting the speculation, rose A95c, or 2.5 per cent, to A$38.40, valuing Asia-Pacific's third-largest stock exchange at over A$6.5 billion ($7.33 billion).
The stock jumped 4.5 per cent on Thursday, its biggest gain in almost five months, after Australian Associated Press reported it may be taken over.
"The ASX is a well-run exchange, it's got a virtual monopoly in not only equities but also futures, good technology and no debt, so a lot of things add up," said Matthew Kidman, who helps manage about A$312 million at Wilson Asset Management in Sydney, including ASX shares.
Exchange operators worldwide are seeking combinations to meet demand for low-cost electronic trading of securities across the world's time zones.
NYSE Group, close to completing its US$15 billion ($21.7 billion) acquisition of Paris-based Euronext to create the first trans-Atlantic market, on Thursday led a group that agreed to buy 20 per cent of India's largest stock market, the Mumbai-based National Stock Exchange .
"Fundamentally the ASX isn't expensive by any stretch of the imagination," said David Halliday, associate director at Macquarie Equities in Sydney.
"If you get consolidation and it becomes competitive, the price can spiral up very quickly, it could go deep into the A$40s."
- BLOOMBERG
