Vaccines Aren’t Enough to Keep British Stocks Exciting
The U.K. is back at school and has a plan to end the lockdown, but the case for London-listed stocks needs to rest on more than that.
Back at school.
Photographer: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Investors have done well out of the U.K. reopening trade. The reversal in fortune for many domestically-focused stocks has been sharp. But the easy money has probably already been made.
Since Nov. 6, the last trading day before Pfizer Inc. cheered the world with positive Covid vaccine results, U.K. stocks have performed strongly. The FTSE 250 index, traditionally seen as a better domestic indicator than the FTSE 100, is up 18%. It’s beaten most major international benchmarks in local currency terms. Across both indices, stocks with at least two-thirds of their sales coming from the U.K. have done even better, rising on average 25%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Within that group, cyclical sectors like financials and housebuilders have shone.