The FTSE 100 Index was launched on 3 January 1984. The market capitalisation weighted FTSE 100 index replaced the price-weighted FT30 Index as the performance benchmark for most investors.
Price performance
The following chart shows the price performance of the FTSE 100 Index 1984-2013. A simple linear trendline has been added.
The index was launched in 1984 with a value of 1000 and closed 2013 at 6749. This is an increase of 575% over the 30 years, giving an annual growth of 6.57%.
The trendline calculates a value of 6695 for the end of 2013, which is just 54 points away from the actual value (less than 1% difference). As can be seen in the chart, the FTSE 100 Index is pretty much bang on its long-term (since 1984) trend.
Fascinating Footsie Facts
Number of companies in index | 100 |
Market capitalisation, average (£m) | 18,253 |
Market capitalisation, standard deviation | 24,837 |
Share price, average (£) | 12.93 |
Number of companies paying a dividend | 96 |
Dividend yield, average (%) | 2.92 |
Dividend yield, standard deviation | 1.29 |
PE ratio, average | 20.2 |
PE ratio, standard deviation | 14.2 |
PEG, average | 2.3 |
Turnover, average (£m) | 14,674 |
Turnover growth last five years, average (%) | 76.2 |
Turnover to capitalisation ratio, average | 0.88 |
Number of companies making a profit | 94 |
Profit, average (£m) | 1,534 |
Profit growth last five years, average (%) | 101.6 |
Profit / turnover, average (%) | 16.9 |
Current ratio, average | 1.29 |
Net cash, average (£m) | 5838 |
Net cash, sum total (£m) | 566,363 |
Price to net cash ratio, average | 24.2 |
Net borrowings, average (£m) | -1710 |
Net borrowings, sum total (£m) | -165,902 |
Net gearing, average | 1.00 |
Interest cover, average | 70.0 |
ROCE, average (%) | 50.1 |
ROCE, standard deviation | 107.6 |
Original constituents
The following table shows the 30 original companies that are still in the Index today. (The 19 italicised companies have been in the index continuously since launch.)
Company | TIDM |
Associated British Foods | ABF |
Aviva | AV |
British American Tobacco | BATS |
Barclays | BARC |
BAE Systems | BA |
BP | BP |
GlaxoSmithKline | GSK |
GKN | GKN |
Hammerson | HMSO |
Imperial Tobacco Group | IMT |
Johnson Matthey | JMAT |
Land Securities Group | LAND |
Legal & General Group | LGEN |
Lloyds Banking Group | LLOY |
Marks & Spencer Group | MKS |
Pearson | PSON |
Prudential | PRU |
Reckitt Benckiser Group | RB |
Reed Elsevier | REL |
Rexam | REX |
Rio Tinto | REC |
RBS Group | RBS |
RSA Insurance Group | RSA |
J Sainsbury | SBRY |
Royal Dutch Shell | RDSA |
Smith & Nephew | SN |
Standard Chartered | STAN |
Tesco | TSCO |
Unilever | ULVR |
Whitbread | WTB |
Largest companies
The following table compares the market capitalisations of the top five largest companies in the index in 1984 and today.
Rank (1984) | Capital (£m) | Rank (2013) | Capital (£m) | |||
1 | British Petroleum Co. | 7401 | Royal Dutch Shell | 140,695 | ||
2 | Shell Trans. & Trad. Co. | 6365 | HSBC Holdings | 124,728 | ||
3 | General Electric Co. | 4915 | Vodafone Group | 114,860 | ||
4 | Imperial Chemical Industries | 3917 | BP | 90,984 | ||
5 | Marks & Spencer | 2829 | GlaxoSmithKline | 78,252 |
Oil is still there today, but industrial, chemical and retail stocks have been replaced by bank, telecom and pharmaceutical stocks.
In 1984 the total market capitalisation of the index was £100 billion; at the end of 2013 the market capitalisation had grown to £1,824 billion.
It’s interesting to note that Shell’s market cap. today is 40% larger than the whole FTSE 100 Index in 1984.
Other references
FTSE 100 at 30 article in the Telegraph by Martin Vander Weyer.