Finding a fix for UK’s shrinking stock market

Will the last company to leave please turn out the lights? People can get too emotional about the UK stock market. Things may not be as bad as suggested by a single snapshot in time. Yet that’s not to say Peel Hunt’s head of research, Charles Hall, doesn’t have a point: “The pace of de-equitisation is relentless and will inevitably continue given the low valuation accorded to UK companies”.

It’s the theme of his latest “M&A” note, built on three concerns: not only is the pace of deals picking up but so too is the size; we’re not “refilling the hopper” thanks to a dearth of floats; and that at this rate the FTSE SmallCap index, sandwiched between the FTSE-250 and the more illiquid Fledgling