Shares in Tui Travel will be promoted to the top UK stock market index in the latest reshuffle.
The world’s largest tour operating group will replace utilities company Pennon on the ‘blue chip’ FTSE 100 list, according to exchange operator FTSE.
Pennon will drop down to take Tui’s place on the mid-cap FTSE 250 index , with all changes due to become effective on December 24.
Tui’s shares are already trading close to a one-to-one and a half year peak, propelled by strong sales of package holidays, making the firm the 92nd largest stock on the FTSE 350 index with a market capitalisation of £3.2 billion, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed.
The promotion to FTSE 100 status after 1.5 years among the second tier “mid-caps” was expected to attract demand for around 21 million Tui shares from investors who track the UK benchmark, according to a European investment bank, Reuters reported.
Any blue chip that falls to the 111th spot or below automatically drops into the FTSE Midcap 250 index, freeing up a spot for the largest company outside the FTSE 100.
Stocks outside the benchmark that grow to rank among the 90 largest by market capitalisation are automatically promoted into the blue-chip index, although no company has automatically qualified for direct promotion at this reshuffle.