Floating up but the money raised has fallen by £25bn

FLOTATIONS and cash calls on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) doubled in its first trading half, but the money raised more than halved to £17 billion as the tide of new issues ebbed from the busier period in 2009.

The LSE said there were 76 new issues in the five months to 31 August compared with 32 in the same period last year. But the total raised compared with 42bn last time.

Yesterday's trading update came as the LSE revealed it was looking to improve its British equities trading service as latest figures showed that its recent success in stemming a long-term decline ran out of steam in the second quarter.

The exchange said it had identified lower fees at its main clearing services provider LCH Clearnet and a trading system upgrade over the next week as key to boosting trading activity.

Chief executive Xavier Rolet said: "Recent announcements of fee reductions for clearing by third-party providers will help reduce the total cost of trading".

The LSE said average daily value traded in the UK for the five months to end-August rose 9 per cent to 5bn year-on-year.

But this dropped to 4.2bn a day in the second trading quarter. Trading volumes at Italian subsidiary Borsa Italiana slid 2 per cent on last year.

The LSE said its market share of total British cash equities had been stable at 57.6 per cent. The exchange's cut-price alternative trading venue, "Turquoise", was also stable, with a 3.2 per cent market share in Europe.

The LSE became a majority owner of Turquoise in December to combat cheaper alternative trading venues - like BATS and Chi-X - which have won substantial market share since the London exchange lost its trading monopoly in Britain in 2007 when the EU deregulated equity markets.

Rolet said: "Actions taken to improve UK equities trading are taking effect, with share of trading resilient in the past few months."