Instinet, the Reuters-owned electronic trading network, has cut the price of sending orders over its system by 37% to attack the market share of rivals. The price cuts will last until the end of this year.

Alex Goor, executive vice president and head of alternative trading systems at Instinet said: "At the new price of $0.0025 per share, customers would save nearly $100,000 (€86.26) for one million average daily shares routed between now and the end of this year."