Equity trades on the London Stock Exchange slumped by £400bn (€594bn) last year despite an increase in the number of trades.

The decline in value from £4 trillion to £3.6 trillion came as equity trades increased 6% to 53 million and the exchange saw a 5% drop to 2,673 from 2,804 in the number of listed companies from February 28 2003 to February 29 this year.