Trading in shares of Jefferies Group, the independent investment bank, were halted twice after a downgrade by ratings agency Egan-Jones, which drew parallels with MF Global, the broker-dealer that collapsed this week.

Market circuit-breakers halted trading after the shares fell more than 20 per cent. The decline came after Egan-Jones cut the company’s rating from triple B to triple B minus. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011