Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

(Reuters) - Intercontinental Exchange Inc's ICE.N New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is in talks to buy the Chicago Stock Exchange (CHX), the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, a month-and-a-half after U.S. regulators blocked the sale of CHX to China-based investors.

NYSE may pay about $70 million for CHX, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

CHX declined to comment while NYSE did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

CHX said earlier in March it was looking for new potential buyers after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission killed a roughly $25 million deal in February, ending a two-year effort by the exchange to sell itself to a consortium led by China’s Chongqing Casin Enterprise Group and its U.S. affiliate North American Casin Holdings.

The politically sensitive deal was originally approved by the SEC staff, but the agency’s commissioners, led by Jay Clayton, an appointee of U.S. President Donald Trump, stayed the decision pending their own review nL2N1QO1D0.