At first glance, the city might have looked as if it was about to see the demise of Boris Johnson†
While he was preparing his resignation speech, FTSE 100 a rally from 80 points to 7188. miners and banks led the attack, with Anglo-American up to 105p to 2735p, with Standard Chartered up to 22p to 600p.
Beneath the surface it was less cheerful. And over the three years of the prime minister’s reign, the leading index has fallen a total of about 300 points, commentators note.
Peel Hunt reported today that turnover in the three months to June was less than £23 million, “a consequence of continued low levels of market-wide capital markets efficacy”.
Ernst & Young reports today that the amount raised on the London Stock Exchange fell 90% in the first half of the year from £9.4 billion to £595 million.
That lack of new drivers points to greater uncertainty in the Square Mile. Fund managers seeing massive outflows are reluctant to reverse floats recently burned by some high-profile flops.
Peel’s CEO Steven Fine said he will “continue to take a long-term view” to ensure the company is “well positioned for when market conditions improve”.
Stockbroker shares are down 50% this year and are down another 3p to 111p today.
It’s received a recent boost from AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown, both of whom are using their technology that allows retail customers to participate in IPOs — not that there are now.
Overnight there were new minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve. They were clear that the Fed will do whatever it takes to curb inflation, even at the risk of a recession.
The concern is that raising interest rates to a downturn will exacerbate an already fragile situation.
The pound stabilized today, rising 0.63 cents at $1.1872, but is still near a two-year low.
In the FTSE 250, there was some relief for battered travel stocks. Trainline increased by 16p to 356p, Wizz Air added 78p to 1795p.