Spread-better IG is celebrating as it outstrips LSE in stock-market value

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Either way, the facts are inescapable.

IG Index, the grandaddy of the spread-betting industry, has overtaken the London Stock Exchange in stock-market value.

As the shares opened for business this morning, IG was valued at £1.52 billion, compared with the LSE's £1.47 billion.

To IG boss Tim Howkins this is his birthday and Christmas rolled into one.

He has been openly obsessed with getting IG above the LSE for years, seeing it as confirmation that the company he joined as finance director in 1999 — he was made chief executive in 2006 — is now part of the establishment.

Over at the LSE, they are sanguine. Traders point out that its shares are very tightly held — Dubai has 20%, Qatar 15% and Italian banks 18% — which means that the stock can move on low volumes.

It also shifts in line with the wider market more than IG.

The LSE had no comment on today's development, but those close to the company point out that one reason for the rise of spread betting and contracts for difference is that they are free of tax.

If the government were to axe stamp duty on shares, worth £3 billion a year, the LSE might find its business soaring.

A spokesman said: "We've been lobbying for it for a long time and asked for it in the last budget. Understandably, the chancellor had other things on his mind."

Howkins is likely to crack open the champagne tonight.

An indication of how quickly spread betting has grown is that IG wasn't founded until 1974. The LSE has been around since 1801.