By Sinchita Mitra

(Reuters). – Britain’s top retail stockbroker Hargreaves On Tuesday, Lansdown (LON) reported slower growth in assets and net new business than expected. This sent its shares plummeting over 15%

Hargreaves London listed reported net business of 2.30 Billion Pounds ($3.12 Billion) for the first half, however this figure was 18% less than company consensus. Assets under management of 141.20 Billion Pounds were 2.2% below expectations.

In a media conference, Hargreaves attributed its decline to lower investor confidence and fears over inflation. Hargreaves shares dropped 15% to 1,106.5pence at 1015 GMT. They had fallen 22.3% in the previous week.

Due to a frenzy in retail trading, trading platforms witnessed record activity during the initial stages of the pandemic.

The company stated that the lack of “Vaccine Mondays”, which drove record stockbroking levels, easing market volatility, and low interest rates throughout much of the last year, has affected Hargreaves’ cash balances for clients.

According to the fund supermarket, “In the first six months of this financial year, we witnessed a steady return to office operations and calmer market conditions which resulted in normalised share trading levels.”

Hargreaves had less net client additions than the 84,000 reported one year prior, but announced a 3.3% rise in interim dividend to 12.26 pence each share.

Jefferies analyst said that Hargreaves has possibly seen more clients withdraw from the platform and draw down. This is potentially a negative for profitability.

In order to finance investments in its Active Savings unit, and digital services, the company announced that special dividends would be suspended until 2024.

The six-month ended Dec. 31 saw a pre-tax profit of 151.2million pounds, which was a decrease from the profit of 188.4million pounds in the previous year.

($1 = 0.7368 pounds)