Revenue at Instinet, the Reuters majority-owned global electronic agency broker, fell 25% to £141m (€223m) in the third quarter, but the information group is banking on its recent acquisition of Island ECN enabling it to compete with the likes of Nasdaq.

Combined market share on Nasdaq - which itself has just launched SuperMontage, its new trading platform - of Instinet/Island is now around 34%, compared with 21% before the merger.