City Of London
Britain’s FTSE 100 Index Is Back to Being the Poor Man of Europe
- UK largecaps resume underperformance after stronger 2022
- Easing rate rises and stronger pound weigh on UK blue chips
This article is for subscribers only.
Normal service resumed for the FTSE 100 Index in the first quarter of 2023 as the British gauge of blue-chip stocks underperformed the rest of Europe.
After avoiding last year’s global selloff, several factors that favored the exporter-heavy UK benchmark in 2022 — such as a weaker pound, big interest-rate rises and a preference for non-cyclical shares — have started to ease. That’s weighed on heavyweights such as miner and trading firm Glencore Plc and British American Tobacco Plc, while Barclays Plc has been among lenders hit by a rout in global banking stocks.