Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, the world's biggest bonds broker, today moved to reassure investors of the company's strong prospects after sharp falls in its share price over the past fortnight.

Mr Spencer, who owns more than a fifth of the company, used the interim figures to set out Icap's strengths in today's turbulent markets. The figures showed an 8 per cent rise in profits before tax and other exceptional items to a record £174 million.

However, after an initial rise, the share price fell 12 per cent, or 30.7p, to 220.5p.

Analysts had been concerned that the strong growth seen in recent months by interdealer brokers, such as Icap, which allow financial institutions to trade bonds and derivatives and traditionally do well in volatile markets, was coming to an end. But Mr Spencer said revenues in October remained strong "and, although cautious, we remain confident about the outlook". Average daily electronic volumes had remained resilient this month.

The interim dividend is increased from 3.7p to 4.7p.

Mr Spencer said that markets had a busy first quarter but quietened in the summer, following the normal seasonal pattern. This contrasted with the same period in 2007, which was unusually busy.

He emphasised the scale and diversity of the business, which serves more than 2,000 dealing floors worldwide and which has not been directly affected by recent difficulties experienced by some hedge funds. As Icap acts solely as an intermediary between firms wanting to trade, it does not have the same exposure to risk as other financial services businesses.

Mr Spencer added that Icap, as the leading global bond broker, will gain from expected rises in the issuance of government bonds.

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