IG Group reported results this morning for Q4-2011 (the company has a May 31 fiscal year end), and of course for its full year ended May 31/2011. Saw 2% overall revenue growth in Q4, steady if unspectacular. Home base in the UK actually saw a small revenue decline in Q4, £44 million this year versus £45 million in Q4-2010. Australia and non-UK-Europe businesses grew by double digits, offsetting falling Japanese revenues following the implementation of leverage restrictions in Japan. IG Group still does more than half of its business in the UK. Part of the reason for the slow Q4 (March thru May 2011) in the UK was attributed to the Royal Wedding, which effectively caused a week-and-a-half UK trading holiday. The markets reacted positively at first, with IG Group’s share price up 2% in early London trading, although they were basically flat toward the end of the day.
FXCM announced May volumes at $328 billion for retail and $80 billion for institutional, both up nicely in double-digit-percents from April. FXCM has continued to slowly build its institutional business, which typically is more steady than retail, although not quite as profitable – as we reported last month after full Q1 numbers were released, FXCM earns about 1.9 pips per round-trip trade on its retail volume, but only 0.7 pips on institutional trades. FXCM stock was up 1% in morning NYSE trading.
For the IG Group press release and more details see https://www.iggroup.com/content/files/trading_update_jn11.pdf
For the FXCM press release and more details see https://ir.fxcm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=238885&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1572160&highlight=