The Regulatory News Service, which distributes price sensitive information, saw its share of the companies announcements business drop to a new low this year as it struggled to see off low-cost rivals.

RNS, which is owned by the London Stock Exchange, maintains a majority of the market volume, but its share has been declining steadily since April 2002 when the announcements business was first opened up to competition. The market share statistics come from a twice-yearly survey by Knowledge Technology Solutions, the information provider.