(Reuters) – Online trading platform CMC Markets said on Wednesday client activity in the third quarter eased compared with earlier in the financial year, when market volatility was the highest since the 2008 financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company said it expects annual net operating income to be at the top end of market expectations, which as of Jan. 19, ranged from 370.2 million pounds ($505.88 million) to 387.5 million pounds, with a consensus of 376.6 million pounds.

Trading platforms such as CMC and its rivals IG Group Holdings and Plus500 benefited from higher client activity last year in a volatile market environment brought about by the pandemic, the U.S. presidential election, and the uncertainty over a Brexit trade deal.

The CBOE Volatility Index, dubbed as Wall Street’s fear gauge, has remained at levels significantly lower than the peak hit in October as major countries gear up for vaccine rollouts and economic recovery from the coronavirus jolt.

CMC said its investment in platform technology continued to attract and retain premium clients, and that its platforms had no outages in November when Pfizer announced positive results from its COVID-19 vaccine trial.

“We have a healthy pipeline of projects that will drive new revenue streams, which I will talk more about in the next financial year,” Chief Executive Officer Peter Cruddas said.

($1 = 0.7318 pounds)

(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)