Britain's Stock Market Darlings Have It All to Lose in `Brexit'

  • FTSE 250 gained as exposure to banks, commodities limited
  • Smaller companies could miss out on euro-area recovery

Is Possible ‘Brexit’ a Gamble for the U.K.?

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The risk of Britain’s isolation from the European Union is threatening what has been a winning trade for the country’s stocks since the financial crisis: buy small.

Buoyed by their limited exposure to slowing emerging-market growth, a rout in commodities and a banking crisis, the U.K.’s small and mid-cap shares outperformed their bigger peers in all but one of the years since 2008 and surged more than as much from a low that year through 2015. That trend has started to reverse.