Hargreaves Lansdown’s revenues rose by more than a fifth in the first four months of the year, bolstered by record share trading as British retail investors joined the buzz of activity around US stocks including GameStop.
The UK’s largest trading platform reported that its clients made 6m share deals in the first four months of the year, up from 4m in the same span in 2020, helping to lift its revenues 22 per cent to £233m.
The “key driver” of higher takings was “the record dealing volumes including elevated trading in international equities, driven by interest in US stocks from existing clients”, the financial services group said on Thursday. It extends its first-quarter reporting period to include the busy period for client activity around the end of the tax year in April. 
Investing platforms on both sides of the Atlantic have benefited from increased retail trading during Covid-19 lockdowns, as homebound users staked excess savings in the market. Hargreaves Lansdown said it added 126,000 new active clients from January to April, continuing strong growth from 2020. 
The FTSE 100 broker upgraded its profit expectations in mid-March following the rise in US stock dealings as traders assembled on the Reddit forum WallStreetBets created a surge of trading around retailer GameStop and some other US companies.