Colt Telecom Group Plc Dow Jones Newswires -- September 10, 1998
New Entrants To FTSE 100 Receive Support Despite Weak Mkt
LONDON (Dow Jones)--Fresh entrants to the FTSE-100 received welcome support from their new blue-chip status in the face of a falling market, with one notable exception - Sema Group PLC (U.SMG).
FTSE International Wednesday made one of the largest-ever shake-ups in the FTSE 100 index, with five companies dropping out to be replaced mainly by a crop of relatively new, high-tech companies.
The quarterly changes, which take effect Sept. 21, include the addition of Britain's second largest cable company, Telewest Communications PLC (U.TCM), Colt Telecom PLC (COLTY), Anglo-French IT concern Sema Group, security and mobile telephones provider Securicor Group PLC (U.SCC) and Southern Electric PLC (U.SNE).
Telewest Tuesday completed a share conversion associated with its merger with General Cable PLC (U.GCL) and the new shares helped the company join the widely watched index.
Around 0910 GMT Telewest shares were up 2% to 155 pence.
Colt Telecom and Securicor also rose, up 2% to 637.5 pence and 1.6% to 489.75 pence respectively, while the broader telecommunications sector fell, in line with the market. The FTSE-100 itself is down around 1% at 5256.6.
Southern Electric was up 1.4% to 599 pence.
The only contrarian was Sema, whose shares fell 5.9% or 38 pence to 609 pence after the group posted a 19% increase in pretax profit. The GBP31.1 million figure was broadly in line with forecasts, but didn't offer any extra pizzazz
The changes spell bad news for some of Britain's more established companies. British Steel PLC (U.BS) is out - its share price has been hammered by sterling's strength and fears of a worldwide recession. The steel company's shares have fallen 1.4% to 104 pence in early trading Thursday.
Joining British Steel in the second-tier FTSE 250 index is leisure group Rank Group PLC (U.RNK), building materials concerns Blue Circle Industries PLC (U.BCI) and RMC Group PLC (U.RMC). Rank is now down 2.5% to 264 pence, Blue Circle has fallen 2.4% to 261 pence and RMC has dropped 1.2% to 733 pence.
Enterprise Oil PLC (U.ETP) drops out as well, although its shares were holding their ground Thursday at 79 pence.
It joins peer Lasmo PLC (U.LSM) in the FTSE 250, which was knocked out of the FTSE 100 index Wednesday to make space for the two demerged units of the BAT Industries: tobacco arm British American Tobacco
PLC (U.BRT) and financial services division Allied Zurich PLC (U.ADZ).
-By Karen Chan and Panagiotis Pylas; 44-171-832-9050 |
