Shares digital

January’s quarterly trading update from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) offered some tantalising hints but Tuesday’s publication of January’s market report revealed the true scale of the UK equity market’s recent volatility.

Average daily SETS volumes in January were 883,793 compared the previous high of 688,391 in August. On four separate occasions daily volumes broke through one million (three times in August, having never previously been through a million) and on 22 January hit 1.4 million after the Fed slashed base rates 75 basis points as problems in America’s monoline insurers sent global markets into free fall.

This all bodes well for spread betting companies IG (IGG) and also London Capital (LCG:AIM), which was about to report full year figures just as Shares went to press. Inter-deal broker ICAP (IAP) will probably have seen equally pronounced volatility in the credit and foreign exchange markets it services.

Shares says: Buy IG and ICAP for growth and margin potential respectively.

HOLD London Capital, London Stock Exchange

BUY IG and ICAP

by: Simon Keane