APCIMS Conference celebrates the return of the private investor

5 November 2003

Private investors have continued their return to the market and online trading this summer came close to record levels, show figures announced at today’s Annual Conference of APCIMS members.

Both advice-based and dealing-only services rose for the second quarter in succession between July and September this year, according to the ComPeer quarterly survey of private client activity. In what is traditionally one of the quietest seasons for share dealing, online stockbrokers recorded a record number of clients (462,000) and a 19 per cent increase in business.

Key figures of the ComPeer survey for Q3 (July to September) 2003 include:

• private client trading volumes rose by 15.4 per cent on the previous quarter; the total value of shares traded rose by 14.3 per cent;
  
• recent daily trading volumes for private investors reached 45,000 during the quarter, compared to some 30,000 daily in Q1 2003;
  
• there were 850,000 online trades - 19 per cent more than the previous quarter and the highest since the 940,000 online trades conducted in Q1 2000 at the height of the technology boom;
  
• online trading accounted for more than one-third (36.4 per cent) of all execution-only trades;
  
• the number of online clients reached a record 462,000, a 7 per cent rise on the previous quarter.
  

APCIMS Chief Executive Angela Knight said:

“Where stockbrokers and investment managers have full discretion on whether to buy and sell shares for their clients, they are buying more often than they are selling. This is a major vote of confidence in the market and a welcome indicator that the fallout from the technology boom-and-bust of three years ago has finally dissipated.”

Notes to editors

1. 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.
   
2. ComPeer was launched in May 1993 to provide competitor benchmarking services. Its reputation has been formed by the Survey of Private Client Stockbroking and Fund Management which now has 70 participants. For further information see: www.compeer.co.uk or contact Richard Bethell at ComPeer on 01293 822366.
   
3. The figures were released on Wednesday 5th November at APCIMS’ Annual Conference at the Dorchester Hotel, London.
   

For further information call

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