Shares of leading UK online brokerage CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) slid by 27% on Thursday, after the company reported what was obviously a disappointing outlook for its FY2022 fiscal year, which will end on March 31, 2022. Five months in to its fiscal year CMC said that it expects revenues of between £250-280 million for FY2022, versus its previously announced forecast of over £330 million. In FY2021 CMC brought in £409.8 million of revenue.
CMC Markets shares sit now at 305p, almost precisely where they were exactly a year ago, with Thursday’s selloff reversing an entire one-year rally for the stock which peaked at 559p in early April.
CMC Markets one year share price graph. Source: Google Finance.
As we reported yesterday when the company issued a Trading Update, CMC said that overall market activity has remained subdued through July and August following on from the moderation in activity reported in Q1. Reduced volatility in markets has resulted in lower trading activity across both the newly acquired and existing cohort of clients. Similar trends have been seen across CMC’s non-leveraged and leveraged businesses.
The company did add that client AuM (assets under management) remain near record levels, highlighting the inherent ability of clients to trade when market opportunity arises.
The action in CMC shares spilled over to its main competitor, IG (LON:IGG), whose shares also dipped Thursday, by 11%. Another major FCA licensed and LSE-traded CFD broker, Plus500 (LON:PLUS) saw its shares trade off 4%.