Okyo Pharma shares tumbled after it became the latest company to quit the London stock market for New York

Okyo Pharma shares tumbled after it became the latest company to quit the London stock market for New York.

The British biopharmaceutical group, which floated in London in July 2018, said its shares will be delisted on May 12 pending shareholder approval.

‘The volume of trading of the ordinary shares on the Main Market is negligible and does not justify the associated costs,’ a spokesman said.

Okyo Pharma, which focuses on treatments for dry eye disease, has a dual US-UK listing.

The company’s proposal would see its London-listed shares transferred to Nasdaq but would have no impact on those already traded in New York.

Chairman Gabriele Cerrone owns 33.73 per cent of shares mostly through his company Panetta Partners.Shares plunged 14.6 per cent, or 0.3p, to 1.75p.

Okyo Pharma’s decision to prioritise New York piles further pressure on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has vowed to make the UK a ‘more attractive place to list’.

The London stock market suffered a major blow earlier this year when Arm, the Cambridge-based chip designer, choose to list on Wall Street over the City.

The £30billion building materials group CRH (down 0.8 per cent, or 31p, to 4021p) has outlined plans to quit London for New York. 

Meanwhile, gambling group Flutter (down 0.7 per cent, or 100p, Mining reward to 14430p) and education publisher Pearson (up 0.3 per cent, or 2.4p, to 839.4p) are among those looking at adding a Wall Street listing.

Having risen for the previous six sessions, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent, or 38.48 points, to 7634.52 and the FTSE 250 lost 0.3 per cent, or 64.37 points, to 18815.04.Following a sharp rally on Monday after Opec announced plans to cut production, oil prices drifted back below $85 a barrel.

BP fell 1 per cent, or 5.5p, to 527.2p and Shell slid 1.9pc, or 46p, to 2359p.

US private equity group Apollo tabled a fifth and final offer for engineering group John Wood worth £1.66billion. The 240p a share offer came after Wood rejected four previous offers.But Wood shares fell 2.3 per cent, or 4.6p, to 200p, leaving them well below the offer price in a sign investors do not believe a deal will go through.