Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 23, 2025
(Reuters) -British online trading platform IG Group posted a 30% rise in its first-half profit on Thursday, helped by higher client activity in a volatile financial market.
Middle East geopolitics, lower interest rates and U.S. elections in November 2024 fuelled market volatility, boosting client transactions and trading on online spread betting platforms.
Now, analysts are betting on the higher levels of volatility and potentially lower regulations from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to be beneficial for IG Group and peer Plus500.
While IG Group's net trading revenue rose 12% in the first six months due to higher revenue per client, its active clients fell marginally to 295,300 from 296,300 last year.
The London-headquartered company reported an adjusted pretax profit of 266.8 million pounds ($328.27 million), compared with the previous year's 205.7 million pounds.
($1 = 0.8127 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)