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London’s most senior index, the FT30, turns 90 this week

Surprisingly, a handful of the original constituents are still members

Following on the heels of AIM’s 30th anniversary last month, this week marks the 90th anniversary of the FT30 index (on 1 July, to be precise). 

Never heard of it, you say?

Founded in 1935 by the Financial News, it was originally called the Financial News 30-Share Index before changing its name to the FT30 in 1945 after the newspaper merged with the Financial Times.

The index is similar to the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) in that it is meant to represent ‘real trends’ in the market. It was superseded by the FTSE 100 in 1984.

Equal-weighted rather than market-cap weighted, the FT30 is being relaunched by the Financial Times for its 90th anniversary with real-time calculations provided by Wilshire indexes.

Looking back, many of the companies which made up the FT30 had a distinctive ‘British’ feel to them such as the Austin Motor Company, Courtaulds, Harrods, International Tea and Watney Combe & Reid.

Some of the original members survive today as part of larger parent companies, including Distillers, which became part of Guinness, now owned by Diageo (DGE), and Guest Keen & Nettlefolds or GKN, now owned by Melrose Industries (MRO).

Others exist in their own right, either in or out of the index, such as British American Tobacco (BATS), Coats (COA), Rolls-Royce (RR.) and Tate & Lyle (TATE).

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03 Jul 2025

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