Playing footsie
At the end of the evening news you will hear the presenter talk about the Footsie ending the day up, down or unchanged.
When talking about the Footsie, the news reader is referring to the FTSE 100, which tracks the performance of shares in the LSE's biggest 100 companies.
A company called FTSE International – owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange – has put together a series of other indexes that help fund managers, pension funds, banks and brokers track share price movements.
We have already said the FTSE 100 is the most widely quoted index, or the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 to give its proper name. Its value changes the instant one of its constituent share prices change.
The index for all companies on the Stock Exchange is the FTSE Actuaries All Share (also known as just the All Share).
The FT Ordinary Share Index is made up of the top 30 companies. Below the FTSE 100 is the FTSE 250.
Also known as the mid-cap index, it comprises of the next 250 biggest companies in the stock market.
Below the 250 there is the FTSE Small Cap.
It is made up of the 1,500 or so small companies.
Other indexes include:
- FTSE 350 Yield
- FTSE Fledgling
- FTSE Eurotrack 100
- FTSE Eurotrack 200