FTSE 100 Index
British stock market index / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" /ˈfʊtsi/, is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chip companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.[1] Founded in 1984 by Stock Exchange to better reflect activity on the market, it replaced the Financial Times own FT 30.[2] A new index afforded Stock Exchange the opportunity to launch the options contract derived from the FTSE's real-time data while competitors LIFFE launched the futures contract.[3][4] With Thatcher's sweeping financial deregulation that culminated in Big Bang the combination of a new index, LIFFE tradable derivatives and promotion by the Financial Times lead to the FTSE 100 becoming the most widely used barometer of whether the UK stock market was rising or falling.[5]
Foundation | 3 January 1984 |
---|---|
Operator | FTSE Russell |
Exchanges | London Stock Exchange |
Trading symbol |
|
Constituents | 100 (May 2024) |
Type | Large-cap |
Market cap | £2.034 trillion (May 2024) |
Weighting method | Capitalisation-weighted |
Related indices | |
Website | official website |
Reuters | .FTSE |
Bloomberg | UKX:IND |
The index consists of 32 sectors, four of which have a market cap exceeding £200 billion as at 3 May 2024. These are pharmaceuticals, oil & gas, metals and mining and banking services, which together account for approximately 47% of the index's market cap.[6] At the same date there were four companies with a market cap exceeding £100 billion: Shell, AstraZeneca, HSBC and Unilever, which together account for approximately 28% of the market cap.[6]
Each calendar quarter, the FTSE's constituents are reviewed and some companies will either exit or enter the index, resulting in irregular trading volume and price changes as market participants rebalance their portfolios.[7]