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FTSE to dump more techs
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December 5, 2000: 9:53 a.m. ET
U.K.'s bellwether index poised to drop tech firms as food vendors rally
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LONDON (CNNfn) - "Old-economy" stocks were poised for a return to London's key equity index Tuesday, reflecting investors' renewed appetite for food and drink companies and a growing distaste for volatile technology shares.
Barring a last-minute upswing in their share prices, three of the five companies poised for removal from the benchmark FTSE 100 index are technology companies, the index's managers said.
And the quarterly recalibration of the index, which will take account of Tuesday's closing share prices, is likely to sweep three members of the food and drinks industry into the FTSE: bread, tea, jam and biscuits group Associated British Foods (ABF), supermarket chain operator Safeway (SFW) and brewer Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN). 
Another likely addition to the index is aerospace components firm Smiths Group (SMIN), which last week won regulatory approvals for its $2.7 billion merger with engineering company TI Group.
Rounding out the list of entrants could be search engine software developer Autonomy (AU-) – which would be the only FTSE newcomer from the high-tech sector. But whether it makes the cut will be "a hair-raiser", a FTSE spokeswoman said Tuesday morning. Its shares jumped 8.5 percent by mid-afternoon.
But overall, technology stocks continued to slide continuing their months-long retreat from highs reached last March.
The clearest ouster candidate is information technology consultant Sema Group (SEM), which assured its departure from the index after announcing a profit warning two weeks ago that sparked a 44-percent drop in its share price in a single day. 
Also teetering on the brink are fiber-optic components firm Bookham Technology (BHM) and Internet security software provider firm Baltimore Technologies (BLM).
P&O Princess Cruises (POL), a cruise line operator, is also likely to sink, as well as Emap (EMAP), the publishing-to-broadcasting company behind men's magazine FHM.
Under the rules laid out by FTSE International, any companies ranking higher than 90th in the list of the London market's largest stocks by market capitalization is added to the FTSE 100 index at the quarterly review, while companies that have fallen to below 110th spot are automatically removed.
The benchmark of Europe's largest stock exchange, the FTSE 100 also is a more faithful indicator of investor sentiment than most indexes. Its frequent overhauls mean it continually changes to reflect the rising and falling values that the market places on publicly traded companies. 
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