BUSINESS LIVE: Trading platform assets soar; Hipgnosis strategic review; Fund firms struggle for inflows

Published on: October 19, 2023

LIVE

By Live Commentary

Updated: 08:03 BST, 19 October 2023

The FTSE 100 will open at 8am. Among the companies with reports and trading updates today are AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, Hipgnosis, Schroders, Man Group, Dunelm and Deliveroo. Read the Thursday 19 October Business Live blog below.

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Trading platform assets soar despite weaker sentiment

AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown have seen assets under management surge this year, as weaker market sentiment fails to derail the growth of the trading platform.

HL won 8,000 net new clients for the first quarter on Thursday, down on the previous three months owing to falling investor confidence, and £600million in new assets. It now has net client assets of £134.8billion.

Meanwhile AJ Bell assets have skyrocketed 68 per cent over the last year on the back of strong client inflows and investment performance.

Michael Summersgill, chief executive at AJ Bell, said: ‘I am pleased to report another year of continued organic growth for AJ Bell, with the number of customers using our platform increasing by over 50,000 thanks to our quality of service, exceptional value and easy-to-use products.

‘Our dual-channel model, which serves the needs of both advised and DIY investors, once again demonstrated its strength as we delivered over £4 billion of net inflows onto our investment platform. This contributed to an 11% increase in platform assets under administration which ended the year at a record £70.9billion.’