NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Two seats on the New York Stock Exchange sold for $1.35 million apiece this week, the lowest price in nearly five years, in a clear sign of nervousness about the troubles facing the world's largest stock exchange.

The price for the two seats, or membership stakes, was down 27 percent from the last sale Sept. 18, which was one day after Richard Grasso resigned as chairman of the exchange. As recently as July, a seat sold for $2 million.

The price for the seats sold Tuesday was the lowest since a seat sold for about $1.23 million on Dec. 8, 1998, an exchange spokeswoman said.

The exchange has 1,366 seats, which allow owners to trade securities on the floor of the NYSE, and their price is influenced by several factors, including the state of business at the exchange.

"That is certainly a bearish sign, not for the (stock) market, but for the expected profits of the exchange going forward," Lawrence White, an economics professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal regarding the drop in price for the seat sale.

"It is a powerful statement about sentiment on the floor (of the exchange)," White told the newspaper.

The drop came after several recent developments have made traders nervous about the future of the 211-year-old exchange.

Grasso resigned after a public uproar over his $187.5 million pay package, while at the same time the exchange has been investigating trading practices on the NYSE floor.

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS NYSE seat NYSE specialists or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this?

Separately Tuesday, LaBranche & Co., a big trading firm at the exchange, said its third-quarter profit sank almost 90 percent and suspended its dividend on common stock.

LaBranche and four other floor-trading firms have been sanctioned by the NYSE for improper trading practices. Last week, the Big Board said it would seek "substantial fines" against five floor-trading firms, which match buyers with sellers on the exchange's trading floor.

In recent weeks, the so-called specialist trading firms at the exchange have come under criticism for not acting in the best interests of their clients. Some industry participants have called for the exchange to do away with the specialist system altogether.  

-- Reuters contributed to this story.