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Definition / Meaning of

FTSE

Categories: Business and Management, Global, Stocks,

An abbreviation of the financial times stock exchange (Index), commonly referred to verbally as 'footsie'. There are various FTSE indices (indexes), including most notably the FTSE 100, which is the index of the top 100 shares on the london stock exchange, whose movement is regarded as an important indicator of national (and wider) economic health and buoyancy. The FTSE 100 represents about 80% of the market capitalization of all shares listed on the london stock exchange, which is interesting considering over 3,000 companies are listed in total. For Pareto enthusiasts (the '80-20 Rule') that's 3.3% of listed companies, accounting for 80% of total market value of companies listed on the london stock exchange, which is even by Pareto standards an extreme ratio of concentration. When economic commentators say the "...the footsie is up/down (a number of points)..." this is a reference to the relative movement of share prices among the companies listed in (usually) the FTSE 100. The 'footsie' is owned and operated by FTSE Group, which is basically a provider of economic information and data services, especially about stock and commodity exchanges. FTSE Group was until 2012 50% owned by Pearson Group (owners of the financial times newspaper group) and 50% by the london stock exchange, the latter buying full ownership from Pearson in 2012. It is not likely that the 'financial times' origins of the FTSE abbreviation will be strongly acknowledged in future, given its change of ownership.