Data presented by Buy Shares indicates that the number of companies trading on the London Stock Exchange has dropped by 396 or 16.63%. The drop occurred between November 2015 and November 2020.

Pandemic accelerates drop in listed companies

In 2015 the figure stood at 2380, while this year, 1984 companies are trading on the LSE. The biggest slump occurred between January 2017 (2,261) and February 2017 (2,037), representing a percentage drop of 9.9%.

Potentially, the uncertainty that has surrounded Brexit continues to keep companies away from the LSE. Analysts had predicted the impact of Brexit on the exchange. Companies affected by Brexit no longer see the need to continue with their listing on LSE. Similarly, companies are no longer seeing the importance of launching their IPOs on the exchange. As an impact of Brexit, there have been depressed valuations. In reaction, most investors have largely steered clear of UK stocks.

Notably, there was another significant drop in 2020. On a year-to-date basis, the drop in listed companies stood at 40 companies. The Buy Share research attempted to put the drop into perspective. According to the research report:

“It is worth highlighting that 2020 witnessed another high number of stalling companies from LSE listed companies due to the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis adversely impacted the global stock market leading to a wipe-off in billions in stock values alongside extreme volatility and massive sell-offs.”

The research also overviewed the average daily number of trades on the exchange during the same period. The highest trades were executed in March 2020 with an average of 2.03 million. The lowest transactions were recorded in August 2020 at an average of 760,180.