Apple overtakes value of entire FTSE 100
US tech titan Apple today overtook the entire market capitalisation of the UK’s FTSE 100 companies.
The iPhone maker’s market capitalisation topped $2.2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) today, overhauling the combined value of the UK’s blue chip index.
Apple’s share price has leaped 75 per cent this year and last month the company became the first to hit a valuation of $2 trillion.
The FTSE 100 – which fell 1.5 per cent to 5,872 points – is valued at £1.5 trillion.
Yesterday, Apple split its stock stock 4-for-1 which it said was to make its shares more affordable to individual investors.
Apple stock surged over four per cent last night following the split.
Today Apple’s shares rose 2.3 per cent to $132.09.
Electric car company Tesla also split its stock yesterday at 5-1 with shares jumping 12.6 per cent.
Tesla’s stock has surged over 70 per cent since its split was announced on 11 August. Apple has jumped over 30 per cent since it announced its split on 30 July, along with a blowout quarterly report.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Apple’s four-for-one stock slice reduced the company’s share price from roughly $500 per share to around $125 but at the close, Apple had climbed by 3.4 per cent. Meanwhile, Tesla’s 5-for-1 stock split saw the share price cut from $2,213 to $444, and immediately soar to end up 12.6 per cent.”
Streeter said big tech continues to be attractive to investors worried about the impact of Covid-19 and political instability.
“There are also plenty of uncertainties ahead which could have an impact on both stocks in the months to come, not least the economic repercussions of possible Coronavirus second waves and the outcome of the US presidential election in November,” she said.
“For the moment however, the flight to the perceived safe returns of big tech, fuelled by the Federal Reserve’s ultra-low interest rates and unprecedented quantitative easing looks set to continue.’’