The FTSE 100 is set for its biggest shake-up in more than four years after the impact of coronavirus wiped out revenues for companies in travel and aviation but boosted others in emergency services and technology.
EasyJet and Carnival, the cruise ship operator, are expected to fall into the FTSE 250, according to share prices on Friday that have more than halved since the onset of the pandemic.
Dropping out of the FTSE 100 is significant for companies given the access to tracker or exchange traded funds that only follow the index of the UK’s top companies.
“The world has changed since the last FTSE review at the beginning of March,” said Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “The UK stock market was some 13.5 per cent higher back then and Royal Dutch Shell topped the list of the UK’s largest companies rather than AstraZeneca. With all the upheaval there looks set to be more movers than usual in this quarter’s reshuffle.”
He added that widespread global travel restrictions meant that “revenues have sunk to practically zero” for easyJet and Carnival, but “because cruise liners and planes are expensive and often funded by large quantities of debt, costs remain stubbornly high”.
Centrica and Meggitt, whose shares have fallen sharply after coronavirus hit its civil aerospace division, are likely to join them in dropping out of the FTSE 100 based on their market capitalisation at the end of Friday.
Technology groups Avast and Homeserve, alongside gaming group GVC and ConvaTec, which makes medical equipment, are set to replace them in the FTSE 100.
These companies — largely immune or with divisions that have fared better in the pandemic — are trading near to where they were before the crisis after falling with much of the rest of the market during the first weeks of the spread of coronavirus across the UK.
Homeserve and Avast, which floated about two years ago, would be making their first appearance in the UK’s top stock index.
The reshuffle will be decided by the London Stock Exchange based on data at the end of Tuesday.
Russ Mould, investment director at stockbroker AJ Bell, said that any spike in the share prices of Kingfisher, Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, B&M European Value Retail and Direct Line could also propel them into the FTSE 100, with ITV and Pearson then among those most likely to fall.
Mr Mould said that eight changes were likely “but that number could go higher”. The last time six were promoted, and six relegated, was in September 1992, while the last time four pairs changed places was in March 2016. He added that Centrica has been in the FTSE 100 since its demerger from British Gas in February 1997 while Carnival has been in the index since 2002 when it merged with P&O Princess Cruises.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzRlOWVlMzRkLTYwMDktNGY1Yi04ZTliLTJjMDllZjdmYjY0OdIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzRlOWVlMzRkLTYwMDktNGY1Yi04ZTliLTJjMDllZjdmYjY0OQ?oc=5
2020-05-30 17:31:36Z
52780819013501
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar