Number of companies listed on main market in London has fallen by 40% since 2008
Does the UK stock market need the biggest shake-up since the 1980s of the rules that apply to listed companies? Well, it’s hard to deny that something has gone wrong – and was going wrong before the Japanese owner of Arm Holdings delivered the latest snub by opting to list the Cambridge-based chip-maker, the UK’s tech champion, in New York.
The number of companies with a listing on the main market in London has fallen by 40% since 2008. Meanwhile, UK pension funds and insurance companies have scarpered to the perceived safety of bonds. They owned 52% of the market in 1990; now just 4%. The buzz ain’t what it used to be. And, since a dynamic stock market tends to go hand in hand with wider economic health, decline matters.
