FTSE 100

The FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange 100) is an index tracking the performance of the 100 largest UK (LSE) listed companies. The index is managed using a market-capitalisation weight system, similar to the S&P 500 where the greater the firms market cap, the greater the weighting within the index. The screening mechanisms also ensures that the shares listed are liquid, meaning there is a stable market for trading activity. The three largest firms within the FTSE 100 are oil and gas giant Shell (£SHEL), pharmaceutical and biomedical research specialist AstraZeneca (£AZN), and international corporate and commercial bank HSBC (£HSBA).

The FTSE 100 is tracked by a plethora of ETFs including the iShares Core FTSE 100 (£ISF) and Vanguard’s FTSE 100 UCITS ETF (£VUKE). The index price can be found under the ticker (£FTSE)