Shares of leading UK based online broker CMC Markets plc (LON:CMCX) were trading down by 11% early Friday afternoon, after earlier in the day the company released a CMC Markets Trading Update on fiscal 2024 (CMC has a March 31 fiscal year end).

CMC shares hit a multi-year low of 97.64 pence early in the day before recovering somewhat – the first time that CMCX has traded below the one-pound level since mid 2019. As at the time of writing CMCX was changing hands at 108p, down 11% on the day and off by 60% from CMCX’s 52-week high of 271.26p, set in November 2022. As recently as April 2021 CMCX was at 536p, five times its current value.

At the current share price, CMC Markets has a market capitalization of just over £300 million (USD $379 million).

CMC Markets one-year share price graph. Source: Google Finance.

Regarding the Trading Update, what seems to have spooked investors isn’t really CMC Markets-specific, with the company stating that “subdued market conditions” have continued through August, with trading and investing net revenues trending 20% lower year-on-year. In particular the company’s higher-margin retail trading business has been slow, while overall trading volumes have been supported by a higher proportion of (lower margin) institutional volume. We believe that these are trends being seen industry-wide, as lower market volatility has marked the beginning of calendar 2H-2023.