UK Shareholder Perks

The UK stock market is located in in the city of London, one of the world leading financial cities in the world. The history of the exchange started in 1698 when a broker started posting stock and commodities prices in the local coffee house. It included prices for gold, silver staters, ducats and pieces of eight. The exchange moved all over London ,from building to building, until in 2004 it moved to it’s current location near St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The London Stock Exchange has been innovating with new inventions over the years. In 1840, it implemented a telegraph machine which lead to New York Exchange prices being available in London 20 minutes later instead of the standard 16 days. In 1872, a ticker tape machine was used to allow price information to be transmitted almost instantly. Finally in 1970, real time prices were introduced with the Market Price Display System. This finally gave brokers access to prices in real time.

In 1984, in partnership with the Financial Times and the FTSE 100 Index was created. The FTSE 100 is an index of 100 qualifying UK companies who have the highest market capitalisation. It is often considered a base mark of how the UK economy is growing. However, because of the international reach of the majority of these organisations many economists considered the FTSE 250 Index to be a better representation. The FTSE 250 is an index of the next 250 qualifying UK companies (101-350). The FTSE 350 Index, FTSE SmallCap Index, FTSE All-Share Index and FTSE Fledgling Index have been created, giving shareholders access to a wider range of companies.

Some of the most notable stocks available on UK stock markets are;  Astra Zeneca (LON: AZN), BAE Systems (LON: BA) Barclays (LON: BARC), BT Group (LON: BT.A), HSBC (LON: HSBA) Rolls-Royce (LON: RR), Marks and Spencers (LON: MKS) and Tesco (LON: TSCO). There are also some fantastic UK shareholder perks to be found and we take a look at the best here..