However, losses rose to £6.1m (4.49 pence per share) from £3.6m (4.9 pence per share) last year, largely as a result of expenditure on a new building. Tradepoint's shares fell as much as 1.5p, or 1 percent, to 133.5p. They have fallen 27 percent this year.

Volume should rise again substantially next year when Tradepoint opens its joint market with the Swiss exchange SWX. Chief executive Richard Kilsby said the Swiss joint venture, in which Tradepoint will be rechristened as virt-x, would be a massive driver for growth next year, placing the group 'at the centre of European blue chip trading'. Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter, SWX chief executive, will become ceo of virt-x and Kilsby will become vice-chairman.

Tradepoint is part-owned by a group of investment banks and financial services companies, including ABN Amro Holding NV, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank AG, Instinet, the electronic brokerage unit of Reuters Group Plc, J.P. Morgan & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and UBS Warburg. This group of financial service companies will own about 38 percent of Tradepoint after the virt-x deal is completed.

Tradepoint said in October it will get a £23.5m loan from some of its financial shareholders, who will then be able to offset trading fees on Virt-x against the loan, in effect paying up front for future trades on the market.