Singapore Exchange first-quarter net income dropped to $74.2 million in the three months ended September, from $94.1 million, a year earlier, the company said in a statement today.

Operating revenue slipped to $159 million from $173.3 million, the statement said.

“Market activities remained generally subdued for a large part of this quarter until investor sentiment turned more positive and we saw the return of higher turnover in September,” Chief Executive Officer Magnus Bocker.

A daily average of $1.56 billion worth of shares traded on the exchange in the first quarter, compared with $1.76 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Stock trading volumes dropped even after equity markets globally rebounded as government and industry reports from the US and China fuelled confidence in the global economic recovery. Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index climbed 21 from a six-month low on May 25. Derivatives trading revenue at the SGX was flat at $34.1 million for the quarter.

The Asia-Pacific has overtaken North America as the world’s biggest derivatives market for the first time amid increasing demand for futures and options contracts in the region’s fast- growing economies, according to Washington-based Futures Industry Association.

Exchanges around Asia have been developing new products to capitalise on growing investor appetite. Singapore Exchange announced in July plans to introduce metals futures contracts based on London Metal Exchange prices and also stock futures linked to the Euro Stoxx 50 Index.

“This part of the world is growing much faster than the others,” Bocker, former president Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., said earlier this month. “Capital is needed in order for the region to continue to grow and develop countries in this part of the world.”