Two seats on the New York Stock Exchange were yesterday sold for over $1.5m (€1.2m), after reaching a nine-year low of $975,000 in January, as its 1,366 members prepared to vote today on whether to float the not-for-profit company.

The first seat sold for $1.62m (€1.3m) and the second, later in the day, for $1.6m, up $65,000 from the previous seat sale in March,