All change: the FTSE newbies start trading
IT IS a big day for Berkeley Group as today is its first day of trading on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index, having been promoted in the London Stock Exchange’s quarterly review.
The quarterly review changes to the FTSE, as well as Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac indices, which were announced earlier this month come into effect today.
House builder Berkeley, which builds 10 per cent of London homes, has seen its share price rise by 41 per cent in the last year to £34 on the back of large profit growth in recent quarters.
Newly demoted engineering group Weir begins trading as a FTSE 250 company this morning.
It joins new entrants security software firm Sophos, P2P Global Investment company, and biopharmaceutical business Circassia, which is a poster firm for booming pharmaceutical M&A, having acquired smaller companies Aerocarine and Prosonix this June.
Marine engineers Fisher (James) & Sons, gold and platinum mining company Lomin and electronics manufacture Premier Farnell will drop out of the FTSE 250.
Premier Farnell the UK electronics manufacturer, last week issued its second profit warning in two months and slashed dividends, resulting in shares closing down six per cent at the end of the week.
Shares in Weir – which delivers products to the struggling oil and gas industry – has halved in value in the past year. The firm’s stock target price was cut by Liberum last month who said a recovery in oil was “unlikely.”
The current market spotlight on cyber-security, and peer-to-peer lending platforms, and booming M&A were reflected in the new FTSE 250 inclusions, while the demotion of engineers was a side-effect of the global commodity rout. Sophos closed up 1.5 per cent on Friday.
Across the channel, Eurotunnel will move into the Cac Next20, the 20 largest companies behind the Cac 40, replacing energy industry manufacturer Vallourec.
Glencore new shares are also expected to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange, following last week’s placing which raised approximately £1.6bn, having gone through at 125p a share.
Glencore shares closed down 4.7 per cent on Friday, at 126p, having dropped as low as 122.7p during the day.