Instinet Group, the agency broker in which Reuters has a 63% share, made its first profit since 2001 in the third quarter of 2003, with net income of $4m (€3.4m). The network made a net loss of $528m in the same period last year.

Instinet's clients, which include brokers and fund managers, traded 34.2 billion US equity shares through the network in the third quarter, up 29% from the third quarter of 2002, and down 8% from 37.1 billion shares executed in the second quarter of 2003. Instinet said the decrease was in part due to the combination of lower overall average daily market volumes in the third quarter and reduced market share.