Blue chip behemoths increase foothold in FTSE 100

Before the credit crunch, the top ten companies by market value accounted for 45pc of the FTSE 100, last week this rose to 48pc. Barclays, HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland have fallen out of the top ten, leaving HSBC as the only representative of the banking sector. They have been replaced by natural resources companies: BG Group, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. In total, 18 companies have fallen out of the FTSE 100 since August 9th last year - either due to merger and acquisition, deterioration in their market value or, as in the case of Northern Rock, no longer existing as a publicly...