New York : Knight Capital Group, the largest trader of US shares by volume, said fourth-quarter profit declined 49 per cent, hurt by narrower price swings in equities and a drop in trading volume.
Profit from continuing operations slid to $42.5 million (Dh156 million), or 45 cents a share, from $83.3 million, or 93 cents, a year earlier, the Jersey City, New Jersey-based company said in a statement.
Excluding a 12-cent tax gain, the results exceeded the 31-cent average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Knight, which gets most of its revenue from commissions for handling transactions and making markets, depends on changes in stock prices and liquidity to execute trades at the best prices.
Revenue sources
Chief Executive Officer Thomas Joyce has been expanding the company's revenue sources beyond equities, creating a bond- trading unit with the $75.3 million purchase in July 2008 of Libertas Holdings.
The new business helped spur an increase in commissions during the third quarter of 2009.
