JP Morgan rules FTSE broking roost

JP MORGAN Cazenove continues to dominate the FTSE broking world after gaining four new clients over the second quarter of the year, the latest adviser rankings guide from financial information company Hemscott has shown.

JP Morgan Cazenove has a total of 228 clients, up from 224 at the end of the first quarter of 2009. 37 of the firm’s clients are in the FTSE 100.

Merrill Lynch shrugged off the effects of its turbulent merger with Bank of America to move into second place among the larger company brokers, drawing level with UBS Investment Bank on 28 FTSE 100 clients.

Small to mid cap specialist Numis Securities also gained four clients, holding its position as the second-ranked broker overall with 106 clients.

Seymour Pierce, which ranked fourth overall, retains a comfortable lead among the Aim brokers, with 84 clients in comparison to second-ranked Arbuthnot’s 66. The firm’s strong small cap presence also helped it gain one client to remain in first place overall in the financial adviser category.

UBS, which had its own share of woe over the past year with billions of pounds’ worth of losses and a $42bn bailout from the Swiss government last October, retained its 20 clients to remain at the top of the FTSE 100 financial adviser rankings, beating second-placed Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, both with 10 clients.

In other categories, Slaughter and May and Norton Rose are ranked top of the law firm advisers overall, both with 108 clients, while Slaughter and May also led the FTSE 100 client rankings, advising 25 larger companies.

Financial Dynamics has the most clients overall of any financial PR firm, with 171 clients to Buchanan’s 119. Brunswick and Finsbury are first and second in terms of FTSE 100 clients, with 25 and 22 respectively.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has more FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 clients than any other auditor, though KPMG again pipped it to the post overall, with 385 clients to PwC’s 341.