The London Stock Exchange will start trading as a fully listed company on its own market on Friday after it received almost 100% support from shareholders to lift the 4.9% limit on shareholdings.

Just 630 out of a potential 30 million votes were cast against the motion to abolish the 4.9% rule. As a result, the LSE will join Deutsche Börse and Euronext, its main European rivals, as a publicly quoted company. At its current share price of £39.75 (€64.61), it will have a market capitalisation of nearly £1.2bn (€1.95bn), compared with €2.5bn at Euronext and €3.9bn for Deutsche Börse.