British spread-betting company City Index is getting a boost from the market volatility caused by fears about struggling economies such as those in Ireland and Spain, board member Roger Hambury said. City Index's client base of traders was not afraid to dip into the markets, despite a credit rating cut to Spain and Ireland's debilitating bill to shore up its banks, Hambury told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
"Year-on-year account growth is up 10.5 percent from last year", said Hambury. "These sorts of situations actually improve our business. That hyper volatility increases our business and increases our revenue." City Index was founded in 1983 and its ultimate parent company is IPGL, a private holding group that also has an indirect stake of around 20 percent in ICAP Plc, the world's biggest interdealer broker.
The company competes with IG Index and privately-held rivals CMC Markets, Cantor Index and Spreadex. IG said earlier this month that its first-quarter revenues had risen 16 percent from last year and Hambury said City Index was also increasing its market share.
"We are operating profitably on a monthly basis and our cash balance is still strong. We're currently running at about 1.5 million trades a month," he said. Hambury said the group's FX Solutions foreign exchange business had "substantial growth". City Index acquired FX Solutions in 2008 and Hambury said City Index could consider further acquisitions in the future. Hambury also said he expected punters would remain tempted by the world's financial markets. "With interest rates pretty much at zero, customers will always trade."
Comments
Comments are closed.