The share prices of large listed wealth management companies suffered today after news of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.
St James’s Place and Hargreaves Lansdown - both listed on the FTSE 100 - saw their share prices fall by more than 13 per cent and 11 per cent respectively as of 1.30pm.
Both share prices had fallen further - St James’s Place’s share price closed at 924p on Thursday evening but today it sunk as low as 521p while Hargreaves Lansdown’s closed at 1,389p and sunk to 1,166.
Old Mutual, which is also listed among Britain’s blue chip companies and owns Intrinsic, fared better and saw its share price fall by only 4.9 per cent - though it too had a much more severe drop early in the day which it recovered from.
Meanwhile the share price of Standard Life, which owns financial advice arm 1825, fell nearly 17 per cent.
Despite this Jeremy Leach, chief executive at Managing Partners Group, said Brexit would have little long term impact on the UK financial services industry.
He said: “Financial services will continue to be the UK’s biggest export for the same reasons it has been for the last 100 years, which is its pragmatism, innovation and desire to trade.
“Nor will the UK necessarily be excluded from the European Union’s pass-porting regime for financial products. Most of the EU’s regulatory processes were adapted from those of the UK’s FCA anyway so negotiating a workable agreement will be more straightforward than for other EEC members that are still evolving on their regulatory framework.”
Tavistock Investments, which is listed on the Aim, also lost 13 per cent of its share price sinking from 7p to 6p while Lighthouse Group’s share price fell 12 per cent.
The biggest loser in the FTSE 350 today so far has been Aldermore Bank, which lost more than 27 per cent of its share price, while Virgin Money also did badly, losing 25 per cent.
Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Banks and housebuilders have been hit particularly hard this morning as markets try to factor in the Brexit effect on the UK economy.
“Sterling has fallen to its lowest level for over 30 years , which will mean holidaymakers heading abroad in the coming weeks will have to dig extra deep to buy foreign currency.
“Investors should carefully consider their plans and avoid a knee-jerk reaction. The coming days are likely to be choppy on the stock market as it digests the ramifications of Brexit, and further falls are possible.”
