Pound and Shares nosedives

The Pound and shares in housebuilders and banks took a nosedive after Cabinet ministers  Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, followed by Northern Ireland minister Shailesh Vara, Brexit minister Suella Braverman and Parliamentary private secretaries Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Ranil Jayawardena quit over Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft Brexit deal. On Wednesday, Theresa May secured Cabinet backing for the draft Brexit agreement with Brussels, which business had generally welcomed as it would avoid the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Taylor Wimpley, Barratt Developments and Persimmon all had 9% fall. Those declines dragged the FTSE 100 share index below 7,000 while sterling fell 1.5 per cent to $1.2795. The FTSE 250, comprising of  UK-focused firms fell 1.7 per cent. Capita plunged 11 per cent with Bovis and Redrow down by 10 per cent.

The odds of a general election have just gone up and possibility of A Corbyn  Labour government must have potentially increased. Markets don’t like the prospect of a Labour government raising taxes on companies and nationalise large sections of the economy.