London Stock Exchange No Longer Most Valuable European Market
Amid a weakening of the British pound, UK recession fears, and a boost in French luxury brand sales, London has lost its spot to Paris as the largest stock market in Europe for the first time since records began in 2003.
Facts
- Amid a weakening of the British pound, UK recession fears, and a boost in French luxury brand sales, London has lost its spot to Paris as the largest stock market in Europe for the first time since records began in 2003.
- The combined value of British shares is now $2.821T compared to France's $2.823T, with major UK stocks like pub chain Mitchells and Butlers dropping 37% this year and gambling company 888 plummeting by 40%.
- Meanwhile, French companies have seen a much smaller decline in the face of a potential global recession, with Louis Vuitton owner LVMH seeing record sales and a comparatively limited 3.8% decline in shares in 2022.
- While London's FTSE 100 index has remained steady this year, the FTSE 250 — which deals in small to medium-sized companies — saw a 17% decline, beginning in part after former PM Liz Truss announced an unfunded mini-budget. By Truss's fourth week in office, British stock and bond markets had seen a combined $500B loss.
- Though France still faces a devaluation of the euro against the dollar, its luxury goods have enjoyed a post-Covid resurgence in demand from China, which accounted for around 35% of global demand for luxury goods before the pandemic.
- Newly-elected PM Rishi Sunak has now inherited the only G7 country whose economy has shrunk since September. Britain faces forecasts of less than 1% growth per year in the near future.
Sources: Tiranapost, BBC News, Newsbud, and Independent.
Narratives
- Left narrative, as provided by Standard. This is the latest blow to the Conservatives' love affair with Brexit, with the UK having already faced labor shortages and trade losses to the EU since it went into effect. If Britain were still tied to the euro, the government wouldn't be talking about restricting its budget and, if PM Sunak knows what is good for him and his country, he will put ideology aside and the British people first.
- Right narrative, as provided by Spectator. The left will pounce on this news in an attempt to blame Brexit for the UK's economic decline, but both the numbers and history prove this notion wrong. The Eurozone still faces higher inflation than the UK, and a devaluation of the pound does not correlate to GDP loss. The current economic pain felt by the British people only began once the Bank of England stepped in.
