The right weight for Glencore

The big event in May for the London stock market was the IPO of Glencore. Many investors are unsettled about the logic of listing companies on the LSE that have little or no economic footprint in the UK.

Indeed, some macro- investors make a point of obtaining their UK exposure through the FTSE 250 index rather than the FTSE 100 or the FTSE All Share because they feel it is less contaminated by overseas earnings. Quantifying Britishness is not easy. Is Catlin more British than Diageo? Both are based in the UK and both make most of their money outside the UK. Even purely domestic companies like ITV benefit when overseas visitors watch their programmes. The reality is the UK, and especially London, is the financial hub for Europe and has always been the prime destination for companies se...