The Nasdaq Stock Market and a group of investors yesterday agreed to buy Instinet - the electronic trading platform and brokerage group majority-owned by Reuters - for $1.9bn in cash.

The deal, which will result in a $1bn pay-out to Reuters investors, comes only two days after the New York Stock Exchange agreed to end its 212-year history as a not-for-profit organisation by merging with Archipelago, a Chicago-based rival. The two transactions have raised the stakes in the rivalry between the NYSE and the Nasdaq, which are both trying to wrestle market share off each other in an increasingly competitive global market.