(Reuters) -New York Inventory Alternate-owner Intercontinental Alternate (NYSE:) posted an increase in first-quarter revenue on Thursday, pushed by larger buying and selling volumes in a number of asset courses as curiosity hike expectations and the Ukraine warfare raised market volatility.

Demand for portfolio safety grew as sky-high inflation, the Russia-Ukraine warfare and expectations of rate of interest hikes roiled markets.

The trade operator stated on Wednesday it deliberate to amass Black Knight (NYSE:) in a cash-and-stock deal that values the software program and knowledge analytics agency at $16 billion, together with debt.

Intercontinental Alternate’s first quarter efficiency follows sturdy earnings by rivals CBOE World Markets Inc and CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:) that sailed previous Wall Avenue estimates as elevated volatility drove up transaction volumes of choices and futures.

Web revenue attributable to the corporate was up practically 2% at $657 million, or $1.16 per share, for the three months ended March 31 from $646 million, or $1.14 per share, a 12 months earlier.

Excluding one-time objects, ICE, which runs futures and equities exchanges in addition to clearing homes, knowledge providers and a mortgage origination enterprise, earned $1.43 per share, edging previous analysts’ imply estimate of $1.42 a share, based on Refinitiv IBES knowledge.

Whole income, excluding transaction-based bills, rose practically 6% to $1.9 billion, as income from exchanges enterprise rose 2%, fastened revenue and knowledge providers rose 8.7% whereas mortgage tech arm fell 13.5%.