Astrazeneca was the leading pharmaceutical company in the United Kingdom as of March 7, 2024, with a market capitalization amounting to approximately 202.4 billion U.S. dollars. GlaxoSmithKline followed as the second largest pharma company in the country, with market capitalization of nearly 86.7 billion U.S. dollars. Examining the development of the FTSE 100 Index, which was launched in January 1984 with a base level of 1,000, increased by more than sevenfold to date. What is the FTSE 100 index? The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, commonly known as the "Footsie", is the most widely recognized stock market index in the United Kingdom. It is made up of the 100 largest blue-chip companies on the London Stock Exchange. Companies from various sectors, such as healthcare, consumer goods, and energy, are included in the index, as are leading banks of the United Kingdom, such as HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, and Barclays. Moreover, it can be seen as a reflection of the investment climate in the United Kingdom. What is not included in the FTSE 100 Index? Most notably, the FTSE 100 Index, like most indices, is not adjusted for inflation. While inflation in the United Kingdom has gone down dramatically since 2023, it might be useful to adjust the historic figures on the index when comparing historic data to current levels. This is especially important when the index seems to have increased by a few percentage points because inflation may have increased at a faster rate than stock prices.

As of March 2025, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca was the leading company listed on the London Exchange (LSE), with a market capitalization of 184 billion British pounds. This made them the largest of all all companies listed on the LSE. Seen as the heart of the global financial community, the London Stock Exchange is the second largest stock market in Europe and ranks eighth globally. Key information The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is among the largest stock market operators globally and ranks 11th in terms of the oldest stock exchanges in existence, with 224 years of operation as of 2025. Performance after Covid The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound effect on the global economy, causing considerable volatility on the stock market. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw a notable decline in the market capitalization value of its listed companies, reaching its lowest value in March 2020 at approximately three trillion British pounds in correlation with a surge in the average daily number of trades, which peaked at over two billion. Following this initial reaction, the LSE observed a decrease in the average daily active traders, alongside a gradual recovery in the market capitalization of the listed companies.

As of January 29, 2025, the FTSE index stood at 8,557.81 points - well above its average value of around 7,500 points in the past few years.On the 12th of March 2020, amid the escalating crisis surrounding the coronavirus and fears of a global recession, the FTSE 100 suffered the second largest one day crash in its history and the biggest since the 1987 market crash. On the 23rd of March, the FTSE index saw its lowest value this year to date at 4,993.89 but has since began a tentative recovery. With the continuation of the pandemic, the FTSE 100 index was making a tentative recovery between late March 2020 and early June 2020. Since then the FSTE 100 index had plateaued towards the end of July, before starting a tentative upward trend in November. FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, otherwise known as the FTSE 100 Index is a share index of the 100 largest companies trading on the London Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization. At the end of March 2024, the largest company trading on the LSE was Shell. The largest ever initial public offering (IPO) on the LSE was Glencore International plc. European stock exchanges While nearly every country in Europe has a stock exchange, only five are considered major, and have a market capital of over one trillion U.S dollars. European stock exchanges make up two of the top ten major stock markets in the world. Europe’s biggest stock exchange is the Euronext which combines seven markets based in Belgium, France, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.

The statistic shows the highs and lows of the FTSE 100 Index between 2000 and 2023. The FTSE 100 Index is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization, it remains one of the most widely used stock indices and is regarded as a gauge of business prosperity in the United Kingdom. In 2023, the FTSE reached a yearly high of 8,014.31 and a low of 7,256.94. London Stock Exchange As of May 2024, the number of companies trading on the London Stock Exchange stood at 1,775. These companies had a combined market capitalization of approximately 3.7 trillion British pounds and 553,000 daily average trades. Largest companies on the LSE As of March 2023, Shell Plc was the leading company listed on the London Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization. This made them the largest of all companies trading shares on the LSE in 2023 from more than 70 countries globally. Seen as the heart of the global financial community, the London Stock Exchange is the second largest stock market in Europe and ranks seventh globally.

The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index (FTSE 100) is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization. The index, which began in January 1984 with the base level of 1,000, reached 8,173.02 at the end of 2024. LSE Overview Established in 1571, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has grown to become the ninth-largest globally. Companies listed on the LSE had a companies primarily hail from the energy and pharmaceutical sectors, with Shell and AstraZeneca leading the pack. In the realm of

With a market capitalization of 3.12 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2024, Microsoft was the world’s largest company that year. Rounding out the top five were some of the world’s most recognizable brands: Apple, NVIDIA, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Amazon. Saudi Aramco led the ranking of the world's most profitable companies in 2023, with a pre-tax income of nearly 250 billion U.S. dollars. How are market value and market capitalization determined? Market value and market capitalization are two terms frequently used – and confused - when discussing the profitability and viability of companies. Strictly speaking, market capitalization (or market cap) is the worth of a company based on the total value of all their shares; an important metric when determining the comparative value of companies for trading opportunities. Accordingly, many stock exchanges such as the New York or London Stock Exchange release market capitalization data on their listed companies. On the other hand, market value technically refers to what a company is worth in a much broader context. It is determined by multiple factors, including profitability, corporate debt, and the market environment as a whole. In this sense it aims to estimate the overall value of a company, with share price only being one element. Market value is therefore useful for determining whether a company’s shares are over- or undervalued, and in arriving at a price if the company is to be sold. Such valuations are generally made on a case-by-case basis though, and not regularly reported. For this reason, market capitalization is often reported as market value. What are the top companies in the world? The answer to this question depends on the metric used. Although the largest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's global revenue did not manage to crack the top 20 companies. Rather, American multinational retailer Walmart was ranked as the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart also had the highest number of employees in the world.

As of September 2024, CRH Plc was the leading company in the industrial goods and services sector on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with a market capitalization of almost 46 billion British pounds. Second on the list was Rolls Royce Holdings Plc, with a value of 44 billion British pounds.

The British-Australian mining company Rio Tinto was the second-largest company in the basic resources industry listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) as of September 2024, in terms of market capitalization, with a value of over 66 billion British pounds. The most valuable basic resources company on the LSE was BHP Group, with a market cap of over 117 billion British pounds.

Shell had the highest annual revenue of all companies based in the United Kingdom in 2024, at approximately 289.7 billion U.S. dollars. BP had the second-highest annual revenue at 202.8 billion dollars, followed by HSBC Holdings, which had a revenue of 144.9 billion U.S. dollars. In terms of global employee numbers, however, Compass Group had the highest number among UK-based businesses, at approximately half a million in 2024, followed by Tesco at 345,000 and HSBC at almost 214,000. Big Oil, a banking giant, and Britain's top supermarket chain The two companies listed as having the most revenue in the UK this year also two of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world, alongside Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies. After a huge surge in energy prices in 2022, these companies saw their profits recede slightly in 2023, but clearly remain in strong financial positions. HSBC Holdings, meanwhile, was the largest bank in Europe in terms of market capitalization, and was estimated to have the third-highest number of UK-based customers in 2023. The company with the fourth-highest revenue in this year, Tesco has by some distance the largest grocery-market share in Great Britain, a position it has maintained despite growing competition from discounters like Lidl and Aldi. UK economy health check In the first two quarters of 2024, the UK economy grew by 0.7 percent, and 0.6 percent, emerging from a brief recession at the end of 2023. Consumer Price inflation, which reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, fell below two percent in September 2024, for the first time since April 2021, potentially leading to further interest rate cuts. Despite these generally positive signs, business confidence in the UK in September 2024 was lower than at any point since early 2021. Company insolvencies in England and Wales have also reached levels not seen since the global financial crisis in the late 2000s. This generally mixed picture will be influenced by the next government budget set for the end of October 2024, which may see certain taxes increase due to the UK's tricky fiscal situation.

As of September 2024, Unilever Plc was the leading company among consumer goods and services companies on the London Stock Exchange in terms of its market capitalization, with a total value of over 120 billion British pounds. This was followed by Relx PLC and Diageo PLC, with values of over 65 billion and 60 billion British pounds, respectively.

Compass Group had by far the highest number of global employees among companies based in the United Kingdom as of 2024, at approximately 500,000 employees. Tesco had the second-highest number of employees at 345,000, followed by HSBC Holdings which had 213,978 employees. As of the same year, HSBC Holdings had an annual revenue of 144.9 billion U.S. dollars, the third-highest among UK-based companies. The oil and gas giant Shell had the highest annual revenue at 289.7 billion dollars, ahead of BP at 202.8 billion dollars. How many businesses are there in the UK? In 2024, there were approximately 5.5 million business enterprises in the UK, down from a peak of 5.98 million in 2020. Although there were just 1,930 large firms that employed 1,000 people or more, these firms employed more than a quarter of the UK's private sector workforce, and made a combined turnover of approximately 1.69 trillion British pounds. As of this year, the construction industry had the highest number of enterprises by sector, at over 870,000. The sector with the most workers was that of wholesale and retail, which collectively employed just under 4.9 million people in 2024, and also had the highest turnover compared to other sectors, at over 1.8 trillion pounds. Current UK economic climate In some ways, the UK economy is in a reasonably good position in 2024. There was moderate economic growth in the first half of the year, inflation has returned to more usual levels, and unemployment has remained low. According to the business confidence index, however, the current sentiment among businesses in September 2024 was lower than it has been since early 2021. Furthermore, the number of company insolvencies in England and Wales has steadily been increasing, with 25,000 taking place in 2023, and 22,000 in 2022, compared with just 14,000 in 2021. When SME leaders were asked in 2023, what the main obstacles to running their business were, 36 percent said increasing costs. The precarious state of the UK's government finances, and potential tax rises in the next budget, are also likely feeding into this pessimistic mood.

As of September 2024, British multinational bank HSBC is the leading finance company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a total market capitalization of over 122 billion British pounds. Second in the ranking was Spanish Banco Santander, with a market cap of nearly 60 billion U.S. dollars.

2020 saw unprecedented falls in the FTSE 250 due to the economic downturn created by the COVID-19 pandemic, falling to a value of 15,101.1 in March 2020. Since then the index has recovered, reaching 20,326.4 points in February 2025.While the FTSE 100 looks at the market capitalization value of the 100 largest companies trading on the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE 250 index consists of the 101st to 350th largest companies.

The total market capitalization of all companies trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has taken a large hit during the early months of 2020, due mostly part to a mass sell-off of shares caused by the fears surrounding the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Between December 2019 and March 2020, the total value of market capitalization decreased by more than 900 billion British pounds (GBP). The overall number of companies currently trading has also fallen, although the number of daily trades spiked in March 2020. As of December 2024, the total market value of all companies trading on the London Stock Exchange stood at over 3.52 trillion British pounds. European stock exchanges While almost every country has a stock Exchange, in Europe only 5 exchanges are considered major, with total market capital amounting to over one trillion euros. The London Stock Exchange is the second largest in Europe and ninth largest worldwide. As of December 2024, Europe’s largest stock exchange, Euronext had a total market capital of listed companies valued at approximately 6.44 trillion U.S. dollars.

As of September 2024, AstraZeneca Plc was the leading healthcare company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a total market capitalization of 180 billion British pounds. This was followed by GSK Plc and Haleon Plc, with a value of over 63 billion and 36 billion British pounds, respectively.

In 2024, 54 percent of director roles, and executive committees at Marks and Spencers were women, one of only three companies in this year to have a majority of women at this level.

The FTSE AIM 100 Index fell between January and March 2020, largely due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. After that, the index recovered, reaching nearly 6,500 points in August 2021 - the third-highest value over the period surveyed—and well above its value of 5,000 points in January 2020. Since the beginning of 2022, however, the Index dropped again to under 4,000 points. As of the end of February 2025, it stood at 3,388.88 index points. The FTSE AIM 100 Index includes the 100 largest companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). AIM offers a more flexible regulatory system, catering for companies that are smaller, less-developed or which need more flexibility around governance.

At the end of February 2025, the FTSE 100 index stood at 8,809.7, marking its highest level since January 2015. This was a significant recovery compared to the 12th of March 2020, amid the escalating crisis surrounding the coronavirus and fears of a global recession, when the FTSE 100 suffered the second-largest one-day crash in its history and the biggest since the 1987 market crash.

Linde was the leading chemical company in the United Kingdom (UK) as of October 15, 2024, with a market capitalization amounting to just over 228 billion U.S. dollars. Croda International, the second-largest chemical company in the country, had a market cap of approximately 7.21 billion U.S. dollars.

As of September 2024, Shell Plc was the leading company in the energy sector listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with a total market capitalization value of over 150 billion British pounds. This was followed by TotalEnergies and BP, with values of 112 billion and 64 billion British pounds, respectively.