Plus500 income drops from record 2020, but holds above pre-pandemic levels

(Reuters) - Online trading platform Plus500 on Monday reported a sharp fall in customer income for the first half of 2021, as trading levels eased from record volumes a year earlier when pandemic fears gripped financial markets.

London-listed Plus500, which also launched a share dealing platform earlier in the year, said customer income fell 32% to $379.2 million in the six months to June, but fared better than $175 million before the pandemic struck.

"There was a continued high level of activity within the platform driven by an active customer base which has grown significantly over the last few years," the company said.

While volumes eased from 2020 when lockdowns and market volatility led to more trading activity, the company and its peers have gotten a boost this year from a retail trading frenzy that turbo-charged the share prices of beaten-down stocks, starting with U.S. company GameStop.

Plus500 added 136,980 new customers through the Jan-to-June period, compared to 198,176 last year and 47,540 in 2019, it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)