ICAP leaves guidance unchanged

Inter-dealer broker ICAP said it has seen an increase in risk appetite in some markets this year, but has left full year guidance unchanged from that given at the time of its last update at the beginning of February.

The firm's voice business has seen a pickup in interest rate markets, but credit markets remain challenging, although there has been an increase in issuance.

In commodities, oil and gas performed strongly in the year to end of March.

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Performance on EBS, ICAP's electronic foreign exchange platform, was affected by quieter market conditions and central bank policies in two of its main currencies, the Yen and Swiss Franc.

The flat yield curve for US Treasuries reduced trading opportunities for ICAP's customers on BrokerTec, the firm's fixed income electronic platform.

"Performance in all of our post trade risk and information businesses was strong," the company said.

"In the last three months we have seen an improvement in risk appetite in some markets. We expect to see a slow move towards more normalised markets as the year progresses," said Michael Spencer, Group Chief Executive Officer of ICAP.

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