Britain’s NatWest share sale to test UK equity market upswing

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a Natwest Bank branch in central London, Britain November 22, 2023. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes/File Photo

BRITAIN’S plans to sell shares in NatWest Bank to the public this summer will be a test of a long-awaited upswing in the UK stock market that saw the FTSE 100 hit a record high last week – months after similar milestones for benchmark indexes elsewhere.

Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt hopes the sale of government-owned stock in the bailed-out bank, Britain’s biggest casualty of the 2008 global financial crisis, will spur Britons to invest more in UK-listed companies.