1. At a Glance – Monopoly With a Cash Printer
Let’s start with the obvious: Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd is not a company, it’s an infrastructure toll booth.
Every time someone in India trades gold, crude, copper, or now even electricity futures — MCX collects rent. Politely. Digitally. With a 66%+ operating margin smile.
As of Q3 FY26, MCX is sitting on a market cap of ₹58,163 Cr, trading at ₹2,282, with a Stock P/E of ~62x and ROCE of 42.9%. Expensive? Yes. But so is bottled water at an airport — because you have no alternative.
The latest quarter was a blockbuster:
- Revenue: ₹666 Cr (+121% YoY)
- PAT: ₹401 Cr (+151% YoY)
- OPM: 74% (yes, seventy-four)
Average Daily Turnover in FY24 doubled to ₹1.09 lakh crore, driven almost entirely by options trading, which now dominates volumes like Bollywood dominates item numbers.
Debt? Almost zero.
Promoters? Zero.
Cash flows? Exploding.
This is what happens when a monopoly upgrades tech, turns on options, and lets India speculate responsibly.
But at 27.9x book value, the market is already pricing MCX like it will never sneeze.
Will it? Or is this just the beginning of the exchange supercycle?
2. Introduction – The Exchange That Finally Woke Up
MCX has existed since November 2003, but for most of its life it behaved like a government office with a monopoly license — slow, bureaucratic, and allergic to innovation.
Then came:
- NSE entering commodities
- Options gaining popularity
- SEBI tightening screws
- And technology vendor drama that killed margins
For years, MCX looked like a monopoly that didn’t know how to monetise its own dominance.
Fast forward to FY24–FY26:
- Options trading explodes
- New TCS platform goes live
- Volumes double
- EBITDA margins snap back violently
Suddenly, MCX looks less like a sleepy PSU cousin and more like a data-driven trading infrastructure beast.
In FY24 alone, MCX controlled:
- 95.9% of commodity futures market
- 100%
- of precious metals
- 99.6% energy
- 99.8% base metals
Agri? Negligible. But frankly, agri is where exchanges go to lose money and patience.
The real story is options:
- Options ADT jumped from ₹33,998 Cr to ₹89,244 Cr
- Options now contribute ~63% of transaction revenue
So here’s the real question for you:
Is MCX a cyclical trading play, or a structural cash machine hiding behind volatility charts?
Let’s break it down.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
MCX is not a trading company.
It is the stadium owner, not the cricket team.
What MCX actually does:
- Provides an electronic commodity derivatives platform
- Charges transaction fees on futures & options
- Manages clearing via subsidiary MCXCCL
- Earns investment income on surplus cash
- Accredits warehouses for physical delivery
Revenue Reality (FY24):
- Transaction revenue: ~82%
- Futures: ~37%
- Options: ~63%
- Investment income: ~12%
- Other operating income: ~6%
Translation:
MCX earns more when people trade more — regardless of who wins or loses.
Whether crude goes up, down, sideways, or emotionally unstable — MCX still gets paid.
And with 52.4% algo trading, this is no longer “uncle hedging gold for daughter’s wedding” — it’s machines eating machines.
The business has zero inventory risk, zero credit risk, and near-zero capex once the platform is built.
The only real risks?
1 thought on “Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd – Q3 FY26 ₹666 Cr Revenue, ₹401 Cr PAT, 74% OPM: When Monopoly Finally Learns How to Mint Money”
3 Que:
1.>Why in former part you have constantly mentioned & talked about FY24 in BUsiness Reality, when we are already in Q3FY26, about to close FY26 ? wouldnt it be nice to compare it with the latest year or quarter ?
2.> In valualtion metrics, is it that your AI forgot to mention Price range according to the valuation or it was concious decision to skip ?
3.> This ones a request to add on according to the business, if possible.
Every different type of business have different moving metrics to track growth. For eg: hotel needs to have growth in Occupancy rate, ARR & Revpar. Banks need to increase NIM’s, lower GNPA,NNPA,Credit cost, Slippages.
Similiarly platform business like MCX is generally looked at in terms of ADT. If possible you can comment on how it was on months of lates quarter v/s previous quarter months. (eg, july 26 v/s aug 26 v/s sept 26 v/s Oct 26 v/s Nov 26 v/s Dec 26 ) Since these are platform business which works on real market dynamics, it makes very littlte to zero sense on comparing on YOY basis.