UK FTSE 500 to gain 8.5% in 2019 amid Halloween Brexit – Reuters poll

According to a Reuters poll of 22 fund managers, investors and analysts, deepening UK political crisis over the Brexit issue, US-China trade war and global growth concerns are likely to weigh on the British stocks well into the next year.

Key Findings:

“Britain’s top stock index is expected to reach 7,300 points by the end of 2019, just 3% higher than current levels. It would represent an 8.5% gain for the year, partially reversing the more than 12% decline seen last year.

But it’s also down from the 7,499 estimated in the last poll in May.

FTSE 100 index forecasts for the end of 2019 ranged from 6,200 to as high as 8,000 points, reflecting the lack of consensus about the direction of markets two months before the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline.

By the middle of next year, participants expect the index to have dipped to 7,225 but then reach 7,570 by the end of the year. That would represent a near 4% rise from the estimated end of 2019 level.”

Note that the latest survey was taken between Aug. 13 and Aug. 27, before PM Johnson moved on Wednesday to limit parliament’s ability to delay Brexit.