London can thank Macron for becoming Europe’s largest stock market

When Paris overtook London as the continent’s largest stock market two years ago, it was widely seen as a significant milestone in Britain’s relative decline. It was a sign of the City of London’s weakness – and it was evidence that the UK’s departure from the European Union was slowly destroying its once powerful financial markets. But hold on. This week, London has reclaimed top spot. French president Emmanuel Macron’s high-risk gamble on a general election has already backfired, at least financially, and he has now gifted financial leadership back to London. 

On Monday, the total value of all the equities quoted on the London market hit $3.18 trillion (£2.5 trillion), compared with $3.13 trillion (£2.4 trillion) for all the companies listed in Paris, according to data from Bloomberg.

It is not hard to understand why. In part, Paris had always been pumped up by the extraordinary success of the luxury goods empire LVMH – Europe’s Apple – which soared to almost half a billion dollars in value.