SAO PAULO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's main stock

exchange operator B3 posted on Thursday a 28.7%

increase in its fourth-quarter net profit from a year earlier to

reach 1.18 billion reais ($207 million).

The net profit for the quarter that ended last December

closely matched what analysts polled by LSEG expected, or 1.17

billion reais.

The stock index operator's net revenue for the quarter

totaled 2.4 billion reais, the same as projected by the LSEG

poll.

($1 = 5.7022 reais)