Shares of Edinburgh-based funds platform Nucleus Financial Group rose 3.5% on Friday after it published an update on its assets under administration (AUA) in respect of the three months to December 31, 2019. 

Nucleus said its assets under administration stood at £16.1 billion, up 2.8% on the previous quarter and 16.3% year-on-year.

Nucelus shares rose 3.5% to around 181p to give the firm a current stock market value of around £134 million.

The firm said net inflows rose 37.8% on the previous quarter to £153 million, and customer numbers increased 1.6% on the last quarter and 3.4% on Q4 2018, to 96,857.

Nucleus CEO David Ferguson said: “We’re really pleased with the 16.3% increase in AUA over the last twelve months and, in particular, to post a fourth successive quarter of gross inflow growth, especially against the backdrop of investor uncertainty during most of 2019.

“It was especially pleasing to see net inflows improve in the last quarter – these had held steady across Q2 and Q3 but increased by 37.8% in Q4.

“While still early days, this positive momentum has continued into the new year and we feel well-positioned to build on this.

“Q4 saw further significant investment in the business with new functionality that allows the placing of multiple trade instructions at the same time, a process our users tell us will save considerable processing time.

“Further enhancements included improved bulk switching capability, enabling more efficient adviser performance, and the successful live testing of new telephony infrastructure.

“Each of these enhancements has resulted in improved service delivery, engagement with users and resilience, and this was underscored with the award of a 5-star service rating at the Financial Adviser Service Awards in November.”