WIREDGOV

Main points

• This statistical bulletin provides estimates of holdings of ordinary shares in UK domiciled, quoted companies by sector of beneficial ownership. The beneficial owner is the underlying owner; the person or body who receives the benefits of holding the shares, for example income through dividends (see Annex A for details). Companies included are those which are listed on the London Stock Exchange and are domiciled in the United Kingdom; that is, their country of incorporation is the UK.
• At the end of 2014, shares in quoted UK domiciled companies were valued at a total of £1.7 trillion.
• The broad make-up of share ownership remained the same at the end of 2014 as it was in 2012, with rest of the world investors holding significantly more shares (in terms of value) than any other sector.
• Rest of the world ownership stood at an estimated 54% of the value of the UK stock market at the end of 2014. This was up from 31% in 1998 but unchanged from the 2012 estimate.
• UK individuals owned an estimated 12% of quoted UK shares by value at the end of 2014, an increase from the historic low of 10% in 2010 and 2012.
• Unit trusts held an estimated 9% by value at the end of 2014, slightly down from the 2012 level but still much higher than in 1998, when they only accounted for 2% of share ownership.
• Other financial institutions held an estimated 7% by value at the end of 2014, similar to 2012 but lower than the estimated 12% they held in 2010.
• Insurance companies held an estimated 6% and pension funds an estimated 3% by value at the end of 2014, continuing the downward trends in these sectors seen in recent years.
• The majority of shares by value are held in multiple-ownership pooled accounts, where the beneficial owner is not held centrally and must be established by means of a Companies Act 2006 Section 793 request. As in 2012, these accounted for over half (59%) of the total holdings by value at the end of 2014. Multiple ownership pooled accounts have been allocated to sectors using further analysis of share registers.
• This bulletin incorporates revisions to the 2012 data originally published in September 2013.

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication.