Oldies are golden for the Footsie

THE OLD Economy has not looked this good since the late 1990s. The top spots in the FTSE 100 share index are dominated these days by two golden oldies - oil giant BP and drugs titan GlaxoSmithKline, with stock market values of around £130bn and £108bn respectively. Other blue-chip heavyweights such as HSBC, Shell, AstraZeneca and Royal Bank of Scotland ensure the top 10 in the London stock market's exclusive club are heavily weighted towards stalwart sectors such as banking, oil and drugs.

A year or two back, the Footsie table was dominated by technology firms such as telecoms giant Vodafone, leading a hi-tech charge for stardom with a market value of more than £200bn at one point. Now the New Economy looks decisively down, if not out. Vodafone has fallen to third in the index, with a market value of less than £100bn. Other hi-tech leaders such as BT have been pushed out of the top 10. Cable & Wireless, 13th a year ago, has suffered from controversial accounting and dropped to barely a quarter of its 2001 value and ranking.

The golden oldie flavour is mirrored at the foot of the Footsie. Long-established groups such as Corus - the former British Steel - transport firm Exel and food packager Bunzl, with market values of £2.2bn to £2.4bn, are fighting for promotion to the index when the Footsie Committee holds its quarterly meeting to rule on membership next Wednesday. Bradford & Bingley and GKN are other contenders.

As if to emphasise the rout of hi-tech firms, those in danger of being relegated include computers services provider Logica, biotech drug developer Celltech and electronics parts distributor Electrocomponents. Also at risk, however, are International Power and British Airways.

It will be touch and go over the next few days. Companies have to fall, and stay, below 110th ranking at the close of trade next Tuesday to be automatically demoted, while promotion contenders have to rank among the top 90 to win automatic inclusion.

The battle to join the Footsie did not have such strong hi-tech-low-tech overtones when the committee met to rule on new members three months ago. There was only one change, with P&O Princess replacing tired-looking engineering group GKN, while a number of former top 100 members from the hi-tech world, such as cable services provider Telewest, media firm Emap and software group Misys seemed poised to make a comeback early this year. But that trio have failed to make more progress and Telewest is likely to drop out of the top 200 rather than rejoin the top 100.

The same fate could await once-proud Marconi and Colt Telecom, huddled together with rankings close to 200 and stock market values of around £500m, while one-time elite club member Energis has fallen so far that it is set to drop out of the Footsie 250.