The variety of corporations listed on the London inventory market dropped by a document quantity final yr within the newest blow to the City.
At the tip of 2023 there have been 1,836 corporations quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a mixed worth of £3.5trillion, in line with information from fintech agency XTB.
This was down on the earlier yr, when the change had 1,954 listed corporations value £3.7trillion.
Despite rebounding in some years, the LSE has seen an general decline within the variety of listed corporations and its complete worth over the previous decade.
The peak for listings got here in 2013 when 2,448 corporations made up the change with a mixed worth of £4.3trillion. But the best market cap was in 2016 when the LSE had 2,267 listed companies value practically £4.6trillion.
Record low: The variety of corporations listed on the London inventory market dropped to 1,836 on the finish of 2023
The revelation comes amid rising concern that London is shedding its standing as a worldwide monetary hub.
Companies and traders alike are being lured to different markets, significantly the US, by hopes of upper valuations and progress prospects.
The LSE’s chief govt Julia Hoggett has even prompt UK bosses ought to be allowed to be paid extra to cease them going to America, the place salaries and bonuses are sometimes a lot greater.
The debate has intensified following a sequence of high-profile snubs for London final yr.
Cambridge-based laptop chip maker Arm selected the New York marketplace for its blockbuster debut regardless of intense lobbying from UK officers.
Firms resembling playing big Flutter, packaging group Smurfit Kappa and development provider CRH have additionally drawn up plans for secondary listings within the US or to give up the London market totally.
‘This information identifies an issue, and means that it’s getting worse,’ mentioned Joshua Raymond, director of XTB.
‘To keep London’s place as a worldwide monetary hub we want a vibrant and profitable inventory market with a deep liquidity pool and a broad vary of corporations for traders to select from.’
Last month, former Chancellor George Osborne mentioned the strikes had prompted ‘various paranoia’ in monetary circles that London was shedding its lustre as a inventory market hub. He mentioned shareholder attitudes have been largely in charge, which made it tough for London to maintain maintain of revolutionary corporations or entice massive tech corporations.
The Government and inventory market officers have been scrambling to implement plans to make London extra enticing to corporations and traders in addition to altering guidelines round pension fund investments in UK corporations.