* LSE listings up 90 percent to 167, trading up 2percent
* LSE and Icap eyeing derivatives markets
By Luke Jeffs
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange reported growth in its core equities business, underlining its plan to move into derivatives trading and clearing more aggressively.
Separately Icap, one of the largest derivatives trading houses, showed growth in its core fixed-income markets and said it is watching regulatory changes that should provide new opportunities.
The LSE said on Thursday the number of new listings for the 11 months to the end of February was up 90 percent on the previous year to 167, while UK daily trading activity was up 2 percent to 4.7 billion pounds ($7.55 billion).
The British exchange, which has faced serious competition in UK equities trading for the first time in recent years, also said its domestic market share remained steady at 63.4 percent for the period.
It provided no fresh updates on the planned acquisition of Canada's TMX Group, saying that work to achieve shareholder and regulatory approvals was under way.
The LSE also reported growth in its fledgling post-trade business, which includes clearing, with derivatives (12 percent) outperforming equities (1 percent), and cited its plan to launch this year a pan-European derivatives trading platform.
The LSE is keen to move into derivatives to diversify its business and reposition ahead of regulatory changes set to shake-up the world's over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives markets.
Icap, which said on Thursday trading on its electronic platforms was up 19 percent for the first two months of 2011 compared with last year, is also watching the regulators, it said.
"We continue to expect that we will be a substantial beneficiary of a shift to more transparent markets arising from increased electronic trading and clearing of more standardised transactions," Icap Chief Executive Michael Spencer said in a statement.
U.S. and European regulators plan to draft, perhaps as early as the middle of this year, rules to force swathes of the OTC market on to exchange-like trading platforms, in an attempt to make these markets more transparent and easier to oversee.
($1=.6225 Pound)
(Editing by David Hulmes)