European investors lost out on €130m last year because they were not able to sell or buy shares at the best available price, according to research by share-trading platform Equiduct, which highlights the structural problems that persist in European equities trading.

The research, which examines share trading in Europe's six most liquid indices across the public markets, provides a snapshot of the broader opportunities missed by investors in the fragmented European trading market, which was opened to competition by the 2007 markets in financial instruments directive. Equiduct analysed trading in the AEX 25 of the Netherlands, Belgium's BEL 20, the French CAC 40, Germany's DAX 30, Italy's MIB 40 and the UK's FTSE 100 between March 2010 and February 2011.