Six Exchange boss: London was always punching above its weight

Bjorn Sibbern, chief executive of Six Group, has reported that 2026 has been one of the best years in his two-decade career overseeing public exchanges, including the Swiss and Spanish stock exchanges. The company's performance has been "surprisingly strong," with equity trading volume outperforming even 2025's inflation-adjusted figures.

This strong performance can be attributed to a surge in news-based trading, driven by factors such as the AI bubble, concerns over the sovereign debt market, and geopolitical tensions like the Iran War.

Sibbern attributes London's struggles to a lack of liquidity, persistent outflows from pension funds, and low valuations. Pension funds in Switzerland allocate around one-third of their public equity exposure to Swiss-listed firms, accounting for about 10% of their total portfolios. In contrast, UK pension funds have allocated only about four percent of their cash to domestic companies, with only three percent invested in UK equities by the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund.

Sibbern attributes the UK pension funds' reluctance to invest in their domestic market to a lack of demand.

Despite these challenges, Sibbern sees no imminent need for a 24-hour trading system at the London Stock Exchange. He believes that the strong liquidity pool in the UK and close ties between companies and its exchange make it a resilient market. However, Sibbern remains concerned about the impact of the current macroeconomic volatility on the continent, particularly the number of planned IPOs being postponed due to uncertainty.