Private investor activity up 20 per cent in last quarter

11 August 2003

Private investors reversed a 15-month slide in share trading volumes with a 20 per cent rise in share trading in the second quarter of this year, according to ComPeer’s quarterly report published today.

Both advice-based and dealing-only services benefited from a rise in investor confidence between April and June this year, with online stockbrokers recording a record number of clients (395,000) and a 42 per cent increase in business.

APCIMS chairman Mark Powell said:

“These are very encouraging figures for the entire industry. There is a growing optimism in the market, while the need to invest for the future becomes ever more important for investors. Our members are uniquely positioned to provide the essential financial services which investors need.”

Key figures of the ComPeer quarterly survey of private client activity include:

private client trading volumes rose by 21.3 per cent on the previous quarter; the total value of shares traded rose by 20.2 per cent;
online trading volume rose from its year-long plateau of around 500,000 trades per quarter to more than 700,000 in Q2 - a 42 per cent rise in three months;
online trading accounted for more than one-third (34.5 per cent) of all execution-only trades;
the number of online clients reached a record 395,000.

Notes to editors

APCIMS, the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers, represents the overwhelming majority of private client stockbrokers and investment managers in the UK, and through them the more than 12 million individual shareholders in the UK.
ComPeer was launched in May 1993 to provide competitor benchmarking services. Its reputation has been formed by the widely acclaimed Survey of Private Client Stockbroking and Fund Management which now has 70 participants. For further information see ComPeer's website: www.compeer.co.uk.

Kevin Sloane, Head of Information, APCIMS (office 020 7247 7080; mobile 07917 406939; email kevins@apcims.co.uk)