Thursday 06 June 2024 10:20 am

FTSE 100 reshuffle: Ocado and St James’s Place out, and one surprising new entrant

FTSE 100 reshuffles occur four times a year, with Ocado and St James's' Place the losers this time around

Ocado and St James’s Place have been given the boot from the flagship FTSE 100 index in a quarterly reshuffle.

The index includes the 100 largest London-listed businesses by market capitalisation, and is given a shake every three months.

Industrial and electric outfit RS Group also fell out of the top table.

The firms will be replaced by housebuilder Vistry Group, LondonMetric Property and Darktrace – though the latter will soon leave the London markets entirely, as it goes through a takeover by US private equity giant Thoma Bravo.

A reshuffle of the FTSE 250 also saw Mobico – owner of the National Express – and Ferrexpo fall out of the secondary index.

XPS Pensions has also been added to the FTSE 250 after rising 14 per cent year-to-date. RBC analysts Derald Goh and Mandeep Jagpal noted 2024 has been a “landmark year” for the company. The analysts said “regulatory upheaval” would continue to drive topline growth with “improving operating leverage” flowing through to the bottom line.

Ocado has seen shares fall 40 per cent over the past six months, with the Square Mile’s perennial jam tomorrow stock failing to hold onto its gains.

And St James’s Place, which has found itself on the front of the business news pages on a number of occasions in the past year, has seen its share price chopped in half over the past 12 months despite an otherwise buoyant FTSE 100.

The move reduces the number of asset managers in the flagship index to one.

The changes will come into effect in time for trading on June 24, with the new constituents of the FTSE 100 trading in indices that day.

Analysts were unsurprised to see Ocado in the relegation zone.

“Although there has been an improvement in the retail side for Ocado, potential legal action looming with M&S over a withheld performance payment has knocked sentiment. Deals are also not being signed as fast as investors were hoping on for its future growth engine, Solutions. It charges third-party retailers to use Ocado’s robotic systems,” said Susannah Streeter at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“There’s still big potential here, but timeframes of growth look more questionable and that’s knocked the valuation. It’s led to speculation that the company may pursue a listing in the US instead.”

The full list of the changes:

FTSE 100 additions: