Brexit jitters see architects' shares yo-yo

Shares in Atkins fell further today as the impact of last week’s referendum vote to leave the EU continues to batter listed firms.

The company’s share price had dropped 5.46% at the time of writing and followed a dive of 6% on Friday.

Following the news that the UK was to leave the EU, Atkins said: “It is critical that, during this period, the government does not become distracted from the vital task of delivering the nation’s infrastructure and ensuring the future productivity and competitiveness of the UK.”

But shares in the country’s only listed architect, Aukett Swanke, actually climbed by 3% in Monday morning trading.

The firm had seen the value of its share go down by close to 10% on Friday.

Earlier this month, Aukett warned that jitters over the possibility of a Brexit vote had hit its interim results with clients postponing decisions on schemes until the outcome of the vote was known.

A number of practices also blamed the uncertainty for job losses before the vote, including Stanton Williams, Keppie and Farrells.

There is speculation that the office market in central London will stall - with obvious implications for architects - if a predicted wave of redundancies materialises and thousands of City jobs move to the continent.

On Friday, office developers’ and housebuilders’ shares plummeted. This morning, stocks in housebuilders Persimmon, Barratt, Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey all suffered further falls while developer British Land saw its share price slip 10% and Land Securities’ shares fell by close to 10%.