Royal Mail gets early promotion to FTSE 100

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Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) has been promoted to the FTSE 100 index early, after another member of the benchmark departed after being taken over.

The letters and parcels service operator was expected to make the step up as part of the quarterly reshuffle of the index by FTSE Russell, but with the completion of the takeover of RSA Insurance, Royal Mail did not need to participate in the play-off process.

As of Tuesday, the company was automatically returned to blue-chip status, after a two-and-a-half-year absence.

Royal Mail shares, up another 2% to 592p and almost three quarters higher over the year to date, have emerges as something of a ‘Covid winner’, thanks to surging parcel delivery volumes triggered by online shoppers and after workers backed down in a long-running pay dispute.

The change means that ITV PLC (LON:ITV) is the leading contender for promotion to the Footsie index, with engineer Renishaw PLC (LON:RSW) pencilled in for relegation.

Constituents of the UK indices will be based on data from Tuesday's closing prices, with confirmation of the quarterly rebalance changes announced by FTSE Russell after the market close on Wednesday, June 2.

Joining Renishaw, new entrants into the FTSE 250 list are likely to include recently floated MoonPig Group Plc (LON:MOON), Auction Technology Group PLC (LON:ATG) and Trustpilot Group Plc (LON:TRST).