Brokers suffer as trades tumble The value of trades on the London Stock Exchange fell 15.4pc to £957.2bn, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by the LSE. The number of trades carried out on the bourse dipped 3pc. The paucity of trading is adding to the tough environment for broking firms, which have been hurt by a fall in advisory work on stock market flotations and mergers and acquisitions. And, while worries over Europe's debt crisis and the wider global economy have left many investors sitting on the sidelines in recent years, leading to lower trading volumes in equity markets, brokers are also attempting to adapt to broader, structural changes in the industry as traders seek lower rates of commission. If the difficult conditions continue into next year, they are likely to prompt further consolidation in the sector, brokers and analysts said. "There are going to be a lot of loss-making business models that just need to do something, because I don't think the market is going to save anybody next year." said Sam Smith, chief executive of broker finnCap. A lot of the trading in the more liquid stocks goes through different platforms now, you don't need a broker to do that for you. The decline in business has already prompted a wave of consolidation and job cuts across the sector. N+1 bought Brewin Dolphin's broking business and then merged with Singer Capital Markets this year, while Evolution was swallowed up by South African bank Investec in a high-profile deal in 2011. Collins Stewart Hawkpoint was also taken over by Canadian broker Canaccord last December. RBC Capital Markets analyst Peter Lenardos said he expected "well-capitalised banks with multi-product offerings" to take market-share, while the number of smaller broking firms was likely to fall, either through mergers, acquisitions or closures.