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The FTSE Index

The FTSE 100 Index

The FTSE 100 Index (pronounced footsie) is a share index of the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, begun on January 3, 1984. Component companies must meet a number of requirements set out by the FTSE Group, including having a full listing on the London Stock Exchange with a Sterling or Euro dominated price on SETS, and meeting certain tests on nationality, free float, and liquidity. Trading lasts from 0800-1629 (when the closing auction starts), and closing values are taken at 1635. The highest value of the index to date was 6950.6, set on December 30, 1999.

The index is seen as a barometer of success of the British economy and is the leading share index in Europe. It is maintained by the FTSE Group, a now independent company which originated as a joint venture between the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange (hence the abbreviation Financial Times Stock Exchange). According to the FTSE Group's website the FTSE 100 companies represent about 80% of the UK share market.

Related indices are the FTSE 250 Index (which lists the next largest 250 companies), FTSE SmallCap, FTSE Fledgling, the FTSE 350 Index (which is the aggregation of the FTSE 100 and 250), and the FTSE All-Share Index (which aggregates the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap).

The constituents of the index are determined quarterly; the largest companies in the FTSE 250 Index are promoted if their market capitalisation would place them in the top 90 firms of the FTSE 100 Index. As of 2006, the threshold for inclusion is about 2 billion pounds. As of 31 December 2005 the 6 largest constituents of the index were BP, Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC Holdings, the Vodafone Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and GlaxoSmithKline, which were each valued at more than ?50 billion.

Most of the companies listed on this index usually include the abbreviation plc at the end of their name, indicating their status of public limited company.

List of FTSE 100 companies

This list is up to date at 9 June 2006 following the June quarterly review. There are 100 companies in the index, but a total of 102 listings as two classes of shares are included for Royal Dutch Shell and Schroders: 3i, Alliance & Leicester, Alliance Unichem, AMVESCAP, Anglo American, Antofagasta, Associated British Foods, AstraZeneca, Aviva, BAA, BAE Systems, Barclays Bank, BG Group, BHP Billiton, The BOC Group, Boots Group, BP, Brambles Industries, British Airways, British American Tobacco, British Energy Group, British Land Company, British Sky Broadcasting Group, BT Group, Cadbury Schweppes, Cairn Energy, Capita Group, Carnival, Centrica, Compass Group, Corus Group, Diageo, Drax Group, DSG International, Enterprise Inns, Friends Provident, Gallaher Group, GlaxoSmithKline, GUS, Hammerson, Hanson, HBOS, HSBC, Imperial Chemical Industries, Imperial Tobacco, InterContinental Hotels Group, International Power, ITV, J Sainsbury, Johnson Matthey, Kazakhmys, Kelda Group, Kingfisher, Land Securities Group, Legal & General, Liberty International, Lloyds TSB, Lonmin, Man Group, Marks and Spencer, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, National Grid, Next, Northern Rock, Old Mutual, PartyGaming, Pearson, Persimmon, Prudential, Reckitt Benckiser, Reed Elsevier, Rentokil Initial, Reuters Group, Rexam, Rio Tinto Group, Rolls-Royce Group, Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Royal Dutch Shell, SABMiller, Sage Group, Schroders, Scottish & Newcastle, Scottish & Southern Energy, Scottish Power, Severn Trent, Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, Smith & Nephew, Smiths Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Tate & Lyle, Tesco, Unilever, United Utilities, Vedanta Resources, Vodafone, Wolseley, WPP Group, Xstrata, Yell Group.

Market capitalisation

The following table lists the 31 FTSE 100 companies which had a market capitalisation of 10 billion pounds or more on 31 December 2005. At that date 10 billion pounds was equivalent to $17.079 billion.

Rank Company Capitalisation (million pounds)

  1. BP 128,497
  2. Royal Dutch Shell 122,656
  3. HSBC 105,113
  4. GlaxoSmithKline 86,311
  5. Vodafone Group 78,166
  6. Royal Bank of Scotland Group 55,643
  7. AstraZeneca 45,236
  8. Barclays plc 39,538
  9. HBOS 38,439
  10. Anglo American 29,341
  11. Rio Tinto Group 28,244
  12. British American Tobacco 27,618
  13. Lloyds TSB 27,181
  14. Tesco 26,035
  15. Diageo 24,898
  16. BHP Billiton 23,434
  17. BG Group 20,306
  18. BT Group 18,980
  19. O2 17,322
  20. Standard Chartered 16,983
  21. Unilever 16,744
  22. Aviva 16,671
  23. SABMiller 15,876
  24. National Grid 15,422
  25. Reckitt Benckiser 13,883
  26. Prudential Plc 13,336
  27. Imperial Tobacco Group 12,408
  28. BAE Systems 12,256
  29. Cadbury Schweppes 11,422
  30. Marks & Spencer 10,256
  31. Scottish Power 10,044

The FT 30 Index

The oldest continuous index in the UK is the now largely redundant FT30 which began on July 1st 1935. Of the original constituents three are currently in the FTSE 100: Imperial Chemical (now ICI), Imperial Tobacco and Rolls Royce, although Rolls Royce has not been continuously listed. A further five are still listed but not in the FTSE 100: EMI, The General Electric Company (now Telent), Guest Keen & Nettlefolds (GKN), Tate & Lyle and Woolworths, although Woolworths has also not been continuously listed. Four of the original FT20 companies are still in that index remain in the FT30: EMI, GKN, Imperial Chemical and Tate & Lyle (membership is not strictly based on market capitalisation, so this does not mean they are necessarily among the top 30 companies in the FTSE 100). The best performer from the original line-up has been Imperial Tobacco.

The FTSE 250 Index

The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation weighted index of 250 companies on the London Stock Exchange. They are selected quarterly as being the 101st to 350th largest companies with their primary listing on the exchange. Promotions to and from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December.

Related indices are the FTSE 100 Index (which lists the largest 100 companies), the FTSE 350 Index (which combines the FTSE 100 and 250), and the FTSE All-Share Index (which is the aggregation of the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 250 Index and FTSE SmallCap Index).

Source - "Wikipedia"

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