Hargreaves Lansdown weighed by stock market falls

October 14 Fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown said on Wednesday that first quarter assets under administration fell by 500 million pounds, weighed by stock market falls, although new business inflows hit a record high.

New business inflows were up 47 percent on the prior year to 1.43 billion pounds during the quarter, Hargreaves said.

The financial-services company reported assets under administration of 54.7 billion pounds ($83.59 billion) at September 30, down from GBP55.2 billion three months earlier, though improved from the end of the first fiscal quarter past year when they totaled GBP47.0 billion.

Net revenue rose to £78.5m, up 11 per cent from £70.8m past year.

For Numis, the reported numbers mean it has upgraded its half year AuA forecast from £55.1bn to £56.9bn and its earnings forecasts have also risen 3% from 36.5p to 37.3p for this year and to 44.0p from 42.8p for next year.

“During the quarter, the FTSE All Share index fell by 6.57 per cent to 3335.92, driven primarily by concerns about the Chinese economy”.

But that has clearly not dampened enthusiasm for investors to use the IFA, which said it was “particularly pleased” with trading data, given the challenging stock markets and weakness in investor confidence.

“A sizeable number of people buy their first ever share via an IPO, and retail share offers are therefore very important in encouraging the United Kingdom public to invest”, Gorham added.

Shares in Hargreaves Lansdown rose more than 7pc during early London trading, making the firm the biggest riser in the FTSE 100, following the upbeat trading update. “…we remain confident of growing the business further to the benefit of our clients and shareholders”, it added.

Calling the results “solid”, analyst Paul McGinnis at Shore Capital said the demand for Lloyds showed a “strong parallel with the Royal Mail IPO two years ago, which generated a huge surge in new customer sign-ups”.