The TD Securities trading floor in Toronto.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Slow equities markets are claiming more victims, as TD Securities Inc. is cutting staff on its stock-trading desk.
TD is letting 10 people go in its equities team. A spokesman who confirmed the decision said it was made "as a result of current market conditions and to achieve synergies across functions."
In the grand scheme of TD Securities, the number is small. The firm employed about 3,600 full-time staff as of its most recent quarter. But it comes in the wake of trims at other large firms such as Canaccord Genuity, and the outright closing of a handful of smaller brokers.
Brokers are struggling with a multiyear decline in market volumes. The number of shares traded this year on the Toronto Stock Exchange, by far the country's biggest market, has fallen 6.2 per cent so far this year from the first eight full months of 2012.
There are some signs in recent months that the declines could be bottoming, but at a very low level. On Wednesday, the TSX said its August volume was up 8 per cent from August, 2012.