Questions grow over the future of the London stockmarket

The London Stock Exchange LSELSE FTSE() is shrinking. The decline of one of the world’s oldest stockmarkets has been under way for a while, but recently the pace of exits has been accelerating. More than 20 listed companies are facing acquisition bids; firms with a market cap of around £100bn ($125bn) could delist from the as a result of pending and proposed deals.If this downward trend were to continue, small-cap firms—those which are valued between $300m and $2bn—could be gone from the exchange by 2028, according to Peel Hunt, an investment bank. Larger firms are also causing alarm. Twelve companies being targeted by would-be acquirers are in the 350, the 350 largest companies on the exchange, compared with just two last year.