With Australia’s top-notch investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd recently warning the investors that the profit of the company’s 2010 first-half – which ends September 30 - will plunge 25 percent as faltering markets debilitate the flow of deals, the shares of the company in Sydney trading tumbled nearly 8.1 percent; marking a 15-month low.

Noting that weak markets had taken a toll on its trading and advisory business, the Sydney-based Macquarie further said that for the year ending March 2011, the company requires trading and deal-making so as to return to “more normal levels” in the second half for earnings to match the earlier year total.

Though the recent fall in the shares extended Macquarie’s this year stock decline to 27 percent, at 0110 GMT, the shares managed to trim the losses to 4.3 percent, to A$35.43, in a slightly positive broader market. 

Commenting on the fall in the Macquarie shares, Shaun Manuell, at Equity Trustees Ltd. in Melbourne, said: “Anyone who comes out with negative news is going to get hit pretty hard. There’s huge uncertainty out there. Merger and acquisition activity hasn’t picked up the way people thought.”

Meanwhile, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, Macquarie – which is dubbed the “millionaires’ factory”; and depends on Australia for approximately one-half its income - is heading in the direction of its worst domestic ranking among takeover advisers since 1999.