London Stock Exchange: Trade volumes crash by a third in just a year
London Stock Exchange’s average daily trading volume is down 38 per cent in the year so far, according to fresh data from the firm on Thursday.
The average number of trades totalled 566,193 a day in the first ten months of the year, down from 912,080 over the same period a year prior.
The average value traded per day dropped 23 per cent to £3.71bn from £4.80bn.
The drop in volumes come as LSEG boss David Schwimmer last week told The Sunday Times that LSEG was more than just the home of the FTSE 100 index.
Schwimmer emphasised that the firm was a valued data provider as well as a stock exchange.
The increased focus on financial data provision follows a 10-year deal with Microsoft, announced late last year. The tech giant took a four per cent stake in LSEG and agreed to be the architect for the company’s data infrastructure and help develop new data analytics products and services.
New flotations on the LSE have fallen off a cliff this year as firms shelve plans to shift on the public markets.
Schwimmer told Reuters earlier this month that London’s sluggish IPO market will bounce back as a rapid rate hiking cycle begins to slow and global jitters over inflation and political instability settle.
Listings should recover even if the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza drag on, he said, as pent-up demand builds from companies needing capital to develop their businesses.
Over the first three quarters of 2023, 23 companies listed in the UK, raising £953m, compared with 34 IPOs raising £1.16bn in an already subdued 2022.