Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), the market data group, has recorded a 36% rise in net income for the first quarter of 2003, on revenues that increased by 11%.

IDC, which is 60% owned by Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, said Europe remained its most challenging business area, with revenues having declined by just over 3% in the quarter to the end of March. Stuart Clark, president and chief executive of IDC, said the results were delivered against a background of "significant economic and political uncertainty".