Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HL.) reported growth in clients, assets and revenue in the first quarter of its new financial year.
Assets under administration by the investment platform ended September 2020 at £106.9bn, up 3% since its June year-end and ahead of the average analyst forecast of £105bn.
This reflected £2.1bn of asset growth through financial market movements and £0.8bn of new business won in the period.
Roughy 31,000 net new clients joined in the quarter, compared to less than 17,000 a year ago, taking total active clients to 1.44mln.
The FTSE 100-listed group said it made revenue of £143.7mln in the quarter, up 12% on the same period a year ago and well ahead of the City consensus of £131mln.
Turnover was driven by strong stockbroking revenues where the group said it was seeing continued elevated share dealing volumes – as also reported by spread-betting companies.
Although down from the sky-high levels seen earlier this year, share dealing volumes across the quarter averaged 980,000 deals per month.
“These results are against the ongoing backdrop of market uncertainty and highlight the resilience of our business model and client proposition,” said chief executive Chris Hill, adding the board was confident the group remained well-positioned to deliver long-term growth.