The FTSE Quarterly Review

There is a quarterly meeting to review the constituents of the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250.

The reviews take place on the Wednesday after the first Friday of the month in March, June, September and December, and the values used to make the changes to the indexes are taken at the close of business the night before the review (Tuesday).

The review dates for 2011 are as follows: Wednesday 9 March, Wednesday 8 June, Wednesday 7 September and Wednesday 7 December.

Any changes that will be made to the UK indices can only be confirmed by the FTSE press office after the committee has met, this is to say sometime after the market close on the day of the review, and not before.

Any constituent changes are then implemented on the next trading day following the expiry of the LIFFE futures and options contracts, which normally takes place on the third Friday of the same month.

Promotion/Demotion decisions are based on the companies' relative market capitalisation at the close of business on the Tuesday prior to the Quarterly Review Meeting. The rules the Committee will apply are as follows:

A stock will be promoted into the FTSE100 at the quarterly review if it rises to 90th position, or above (by market capitalisation).

A stock will be removed from the FTSE100 at the quarterly review if it falls to 111th position, or below (by market capitalisation).

The above observations are mandatory. However, if a security is 101st or below, but doesn't fall to 111th, this does not mean it will stay in. It may still be necessary to remove it to make way for the mandatory inclusion of others. Equally, if a security rises above 101st but is not in the top 90, it may still gain entry if a FTSE 100 member becomes subject to the mandatory exclusion rule. The thresholds for the FTSE Mid-250 are 325th or above for automatic entry and 376th or below for automatic deletion. Companies in the range 326th to 375th are subject to rules similar to the FTSE 100 rules for companies in the range 91st to 110th.