There Paris stock exchange does not lose the title of richest in Europe. London returns to being the most important center for stock trading on the continent, after Brexit had put its role as a global financial center in danger. There French stock exchange it suffered serious declines after the European elections and President Macron’s announcement of early elections for the lower house of parliament.
The reason for London overtaking Paris in the market capitalization of listed companies is therefore mainly due to the crisis in the French financial markets after the European elections. The decline caused the cancellation of all earnings of the first 5 months of the year.
London overtakes Paris: it is the richest stock exchange in Europe
The market capitalization of the London Stock Exchange, the sum of the value of the shares of all companies listed on the English stock exchange, has exceeded that of the Paris Stock Exchange. According to Bloomberg, the shares of companies on the French financial markets are worth 3130 billion dollars, compared to 3180 in London.
The English stock market therefore returns to being the richest in Europe, regaining a position called into question by the instability brought about by Brexit. London remains one of the world’s financial capitals and has recently seen the listing of an important technological company such as Raspberry Pi, which produces single-board computers and in which the important semiconductor company Arm has also invested.
But a large part of the reasons why this overtaking occurred can be attributed to the terrible performances in Paris over the last week. The Cac40, the main French price list, has completely eliminated all the growth of the first 5 months of 2024 due to the European elections and their consequences on French politics.
The collapse of the Paris stock market after the elections
The results of the European elections rewarded the far-right party with over 30% of the votes National Rally by Marine Le Pen. Not only did the Rn get double the votes of Reinassaince, the party of incumbent president Emmanuel Macron, but it also came first in a large part of the electoral constituencies. Even before the results became official, Macron himself dissolved the lower house of parliament and called new early elections. These will not concern his position, but only the composition of the government.
All European stock markets reacted badly to the results of the European elections, especially regarding the advance of far-right parties in Germany and France. In almost all cases, however, in the following days there was also a rebound in the value of the shares which led the stock markets to recover at least part of the losses.
This did not happen in Paris, on the contrary the situation of national political instability led to a continuation of the decline in transactions. The stock market lost 6.2% in a week, bringing earnings since the beginning of the year to almost zero (+0.5%). For this reason, London, which has risen by 5% since the beginning of 2024, has overtaken Paris in value even though elections are imminent in the United Kingdom too. In that case, however, a large victory for the center-left Labor party is taken for granted.
