CMC Markets Issues Trading Update Highlighting 9% Increase in Active Clients

CMC Markets (LSE: CMCX) has issued a trading update ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at 10:00am (GMT+1) today in London, UK.

According to a company news report released by the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the group is continuing to make progress on each of its strategic initiatives, with improvements in a number of key indicators of future trading activity.

It is reported that for the five month period to 31 August 2016, new clients are up 19 percent and active clients are up 9 percent compared to the same period last year. In addition, client money balances at the end of August are 21 percent higher than at the same point last year.

Low Levels of Volatility

However, low levels of volatility have been providing fewer trading opportunities for clients. As a result, and as has been the case with many competitors, the value of client trades continues to be lower than the prior year and net operating income for the six months to 30 September 2016 is expected to be lower than the same period last year.

Cost-Cutting

The group reports it is confident that net operating income will improve in the second half through the group’s larger funded client base, growing institutional offering and new product development. The group also continues its focus on cost control.

With a strong, growing client base and clear strategy, the group remains focused and confident of achieving the target of £220 million net operating income by 2020.

Increase in Active Clients

Finance Magnates last reported on CMC Markets’ trading status in July when the group highlighting operational metrics for Q2.

The statement said that the performance of the firm was in accordance with the expectations of active clients growing by 13 percent compared with a year ago. The group did however state that the value of client trades had been lower during the quarter with the run-up to the U.K. referendum, damaging investor sentiment.

At the time, the CEO of CMC Markets, Peter Cruddas, commented: “Our full binary launch has been a success and I am very excited about the pipeline of new products. This has been a solid quarter building on the successful listing in February 2016.”