London retakes lead from Amsterdam as Europe’s share trading hub

London moved back ahead of Amsterdam as Europe’s largest share trading centre in June, reclaiming top spot for the first time this year after Brexit pushed much of the city’s volumes to the continent.

An average €8.92bn of shares a day were traded on various London venues in June, compared with €8.8bn for various Dutch venues, according to data from Cboe Europe.

This compares with about €9.4bn average daily trading value for Amsterdam in May and about €8.7bn in London. Daily trading in Paris, the third-largest venue, declined to €5.8bn in June from from almost €6.1bn a month earlier.

While London’s return to the top spot is a welcome boost for the stock trading sector buffeted by Brexit, the city’s lead over Amsterdam is a fraction of what it was before the end of the transition period. In December, London’s share trading volumes stood at €14.3bn compared with €2.2bn for Amsterdam, according to Cboe data.

The UK lost its rights to access the EU’s single market on Dec. 31 and the bloc has not permitted investors inside its borders to trade shares in companies such as Airbus and BNP Paribas from the UK. The EU could eventually reopen access by recognising the UK markets as equivalent to its own, though there is little sign of movement in this process.

London has gained some volumes this year from Swiss equity trading, which resumed after the UK dropped out of an EU-wide ban that has been in place since 2019.

“The return of Swiss share trading has helped overturn what has been just a temporary phase,” said Alberto Tocchio, a portfolio manager at Kairos Partners. “London will soon regain the status of European and global trading hub and it could easily benefit from being away from the restrictive EU rules.”

Bloomberg News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Source: businesslive.co.za