Markets
12/02/2021

Following Brexit, London Displaced By Amsterdam As Europe's Top Stocks Centre




Following the exit of the Britain from the European Union at the beginning of the year, London has been replaced by Amsterdam as the biggest share trading centre of Europe. According to data published on Thursday, Amsterdam benefitted from a chunk of UK derivatives business during and after Brexit.
 
According to the Cboe exchange, which operates in both cities, the trading per day in January at the stock exchanges in the Dutch capital was at €9.2 billion ($11.15 billion) while that in London was at 8.6 billion in London. 
 
Cboe said that in 2020, the average daily trading in London was at €17.5 billion while that in Frankfurt was at 5.9 billion in second position. Amsterdam, with an average daily trading of 2.6 billion, was placed in sixth position in 2020.
 
Warnings of the fall out of the UK leaving the European Union single market without putting in place adequate provisions for trade in services, and notably finance, have for long been issued by the City of London. Finance alone comprised more than 10 per cent of the total tax receipts for Britain before the setting of Brexit.
 
Since there have been no signs from the EU of reversing its position – which stated that the euro-denominated shares have to be traded with the single market, therefore the shift of trading to Amsterdam will most likely be a permanent feature, say exchange officials. Britain left the single market of the EU on January 1 this year.
 
However the gap between eth two exchanges could get narrower with the resumption this month of trading in Swiss shares. That trading currently averaged €250 million and is expected to grow further towards reaching a value of more than €1 billion a day which was the level prior to the halting of Swiss shares in London in June of 2019.
 
Large chunks of trading in euro-denominated interest rate swaps have shifted from London since January this year, showed separate data published on Thursday. London is the largest swaps trading centre of the world. That loss of London benefitted exchanges in the EU and New York.
 
IHS Markit said that one fourth of the euro rate swaps market in January was accounted for by trading platforms in Amsterdam, and to a much lesser extent Paris. In comparison, that number was just at 10 per cent in July last year.
 
During the same period, the market share of London dropped from just a little below 40 per cent to a little more than 10 per cent as the volumes ay US platforms doubled in the period to 20 per cent of the total euro swaps market.
 
(Source:www.channelnewsasia.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
In the same section