Stock market ends day slightly down after election of Labour’s new leader and the appointment of his senior team
Business leaders were treading carefully in their approach to the new Labour leadership on Monday, saying only that they want to meet the new shadow cabinet to get more details on the policies Jeremy Corbyn outlined during his leadership campaign. These included taking public control of the energy industry, hiking taxes and his “people’s QE” - electronic money-printing to spend on infrastructure.
City traders appeared largely unworried about the new Corbyn-Tom Watson-John McDonnell Labour team. The FTSE 100 index was little changed, ending 33 points lower at 6084. Shares in the UK’s big banks, threatened with nationalisation by new shadow chancellor McDonnell, were slightly lower, but there was no sign of a big sell-off. Energy company shares were also little moved in stark contrast to the panic that set in two years ago when Ed Miliband threatened the sector with price capping.
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