- Education
- Introduction to Trading
- What are Stock Market Indices
- FTSE 100 Index
FTSE 100 Index - FTSE futures
What is FTSE 100 Index
The FTSE 100 Index (abbreviation for Financial Times Stock Exchange Index) - is the most significant stock index in Great Britain. The index is computed by the independent company FTSE Group. The FTSE 100 Index is computed as a weighted average of value of prices of stocks of the 100 largest stock companies, trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Stocks of these companies are in free float. Total capitalization of these companies is 80% of capitalization of all stocks, traded on the LSE.
The base date for the FTSE 100 is 03.01.1984- at this moment base value of the index was equal to 1,000. Stocks, included in the index, well reflect general state of Great Britain and the world. FTSE 100 index is computed from 08:00 to 16:29 (GMT). The prices of the stocks on the London Stock Exchange are used. The list of the companies, included in the index, are reviewed quarterly.
FTSE 100 Stocks
FTSE 100 index includes stock prices of such companies as BHP Billiton, BP, Barclays, HSBC Hldgs, Lloyds Banking Group, Rolls-Royce Holding, Tesco, Unilever, Vodafone Group and others. Each company has its own weight in the index.
Besides FTSE 100 index, group of FTSE indexes are also actively used; for example, FTSE Mid 250 index, which includes 250 companies of Great Britain, which follow the first hundred in terms of capitalization.
FTSE 100 Futures
FTSE 100 index is the basis for futures, circulating in the system of electronic trades "Connect" London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE), part of the NYSE Euronext structure. Besides, London Stock Exchange has launched its own futures for this index.
FTSE 100 Trading
With IFC Markets traders have an opportunity to trade UK 100 index of the 100 companies listed on the LSE, composed similar to FTSE 100 index (in standard composition and weights of separate issuers). This index is a synthetic continuous instrument (without date of expiration).You can watch FTSE 100 Live Chart to get the historical and real time prices.