Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Asset management group BlackRock has increased its holding in IG Group (LON:IGG) to 9.19%, according to a filing with the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The share purchase took place on 21 February, according to the filing. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
The BlackRock group holds a stake of 33,732,712 shares in the brokerage. The majority, or more than 20.3 million shares, are held by BlackRock Inc. This equals 7.45% in IG Group. Additional 5.48 million shares, or 1.49% in IG Group, are in the hands of BlackRock Investment Management (UK) in the form of contracts for difference (CFDs), while some 905,558 are acquired as securities lending instruments.
As a result of the share purchase, the total IG Group holding for BlackRock Investment Management (UK) has gone above 5% and that for BlackRock Inc. remains above 5%.
BlackRock is a global asset management firm that services both retail and institutional clients. It has $5.1 trillion is assets under management (as at end-December 2016). The company’s portfolio includes investment management, risk management, enterprise investment, and advisory services, and a wide range of products, such as separate accounts, mutual funds, iShare (exchange-traded funds), and other. It is active in more than 30 countries and in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East and Africa.
On 5 December, 2016, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced intentions to set a new leverage cap of 50:1 (25:1 for inexperienced investors with less than 12 months of trading), as well as to ban bonuses or other benefits to promote risky trading instruments.
Following the news, the shares of UK forex leaders IG Group, Plus500 (LON:PLUS), and CMC Markets (LON:CMCX) dipped to very low levels and have had a hard time recovering. On the day after the UK regulator made the announcement, IG Group opened more than 37% lower at GBX 485 (down from GBX 787 a day earlier).
Plus500 and CMC Markets also opened the trading day on 6 December at prices much lower than the previous day. The price of Plus500’s shares declined by some 29% to GBX 362.8 apiece (down from GBX 511), while CMC Markets dropped 38% to GBX 115 (down from GBX 184.4 a day earlier).
On Thursday, IG Group shares were traded above GBX 510 apiece. Plus500 shares slightly above GBX 450 and those of CMC Markets were at GBX 116.
IG Group operates worldwide with offices in 15 countries. It offers access to more than 10,000 markets, including forex, indices, shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and binary options. In the UK it also offers spread betting.
The broker is based in the UK and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but its subsidiaries are also regulated by the relevant authorities in the countries where they operate. It is a licensed bookmaker by the UK’s Gambling Commission and now a managed portfolio provider in the UK.
