Themes from October
PM Boris Johnson has called a General Election for 12th December 2019 to break the Parliamentary impasse over Brexit.
October saw wild swings in UK equity valuations as investors first bought UK centric shares ahead of an expected 31 March 2019 Brexit, then bought back oversold UK multinationals after Brexit was delayed.
Prudential demerged fund manager M&G with shareholders receiving shares in proportion to their Prudential holdings. M&G is in the UK blue chip index.
Hong Kong Carrie Lam announced Hong Kong will experience a recession in 2019 due to the upheaval caused by popular unrest.
HSBC reported Q3 profit attributable to shareholders fell 24% to $3bn due to lower client activity in its global markets division. The board said HSBC would not meet return on equity targets.
ECB chief Mario Draghi stepped down in favour of former IMF boss Christine Lagarde.
Just Eat takeover by Takeaway.com faces a challenge from Prosus which has offered Just Eat shareholders an offer worth 710p in cash.
Communications Workers Union backed strike action at Royal Mail over the critical Christmas period.
Schroders took over the investment management mandate for the Woodford Patient Capital fund after the resignation of Neil Woodford.