Astrazeneca was the leading pharmaceutical company in the United Kingdom as of March 7, 2024, with a market capitalization amounting to approximately ***** billion U.S. dollars. GlaxoSmithKline followed as the second largest pharma company in the country, with market capitalization of nearly **** 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.

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.

Dataset of 100 companies in the FTSE 100 index

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.

As of May 2025, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca was the leading company listed on the London Exchange (LSE), with a market capitalization of 159 billion British pounds. This made them the largest of 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.

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 ******** 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

The statistic shows the highs and lows of the FTSE 100 Index between 2000 and 2024. 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 2024, the FTSE reached a yearly high of 8,445.8 and a low of 7,446.29. 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.

Key information about United Kingdom Market Capitalization: % of GDP

• United Kingdom Market Capitalization accounted for 83.8 % of its Nominal GDP in Dec 2024, compared with a percentage of 70.5 % in the previous year
• UK Market Capitalization: % Nominal GDP is updated yearly, available from Dec 1999 to Dec 2024
• The data reached an all-time high of 131.2 % in Dec 2006 and a record low of 70.5 % in Dec 2023

CEIC calculates annual Market Capitalization as % of Nominal GDP from monthly Market Capitalization and quarterly Nominal GDP. London Stock Exchange provides Market Capitalization in local currency. The Office for National Statistics provides Nominal GDP in local currency. As of 2017, definitions from the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) have been introduced. Market Capitalization includes domestically listed companies only.


Further information about United Kingdom Market Capitalization: % of GDP

• In the latest reports, FTSE All-Share recorded a daily P/E ratio of 14.4 in Jul 2022
• FTSE 100 closed at 8,674.0 points in Jan 2025

This statistic presents the nationalities of CEOs who work at FTSE 100 companies in the United Kingdom as of 2018. Over half of FTSE 100 CEO's are British, with the next most common nationality being American, with nine CEOs in 2018. In total there were 21 different nationalities represented at the top-level of the UK's 100 biggest companies, with 11 of these being European countries.

In 2024, the difference between average hourly earnings for men and women in the United Kingdom for all workers was 13.1 percent, compared with seven percent for full-time workers, and -3 percent for part-time workers. During the provided time period, the gender pay gap was at its highest in 1997, when it was 27.5 percent for all workers. Compared with 1997, the gender pay gap has fallen by 13.2 percent for all workers, and 9.7 percent for full-time workers. Gender pay gap higher in older age groups Although the gender pay gap among younger age groups was relatively small in 2024, the double-digit pay gap evident in older age groups served to keep the overall gap high. The gender pay gap for workers aged between 18 and 21 for example was -0.5 percent, compared with 12.1percent for people in their 50s. Additionally, the gender pay gap for people aged over 60 has changed little since 1997, falling by just 1.2 percent between 1997 and 2023, compared with a 14.9 percent reduction among workers in their 40s. Positions of power As of 2024, women are unfortunately still relatively underrepresented in leadership positions at Britain’s top businesses. Among FTSE 100 companies, for example, just 9.4 percent of CEOs were female, falling to just 6.1 percent for FTSE 250 companies. Representation was better when it came to FTSE 100 boardrooms, with 44.7 percent of positions at this level being filled by women, compared with 42.6 percent at FTSE 250 companies. In the corridors of political power, the proportion of female MPs was estimated to have reached its highest ever level after the 2024 election at 41 percent, compared with just three percent in 1979.

In the first quarter of 2020, global stock indices posted substantial losses that were triggered by the outbreak of COVID-19. The period from March 6 to 18 was particularly dramatic, with several stock indices losing more than 20 percent of their value.

Worldwide panic hits markets From the United States to the United Kingdom, stock market indices suffered steep falls as the coronavirus pandemic created economic uncertainty. The Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 are two indices that track company performance in the United States, and both lost value as lockdowns were introduced in the country. European markets also recorded significant slumps, which triggered panic selling among investors. The FTSE 100 – the leading share index of companies in the UK – plunged by as much as 21 percent in the opening weeks of March 2020.

Is it time to invest in tech stocks? The S&P 500 is regarded as the best representation of the U.S. economy because it includes more companies from the leading industries. However, helped in no small part by its focus on tech companies, the Nasdaq 100 has risen in popularity and seen remarkable growth in recent years. Global demand for digital technologies has increased further due to the coronavirus, with remote working and online shopping becoming part of the new normal. As a result, more investors are likely to switch to the tech stocks listed on the Nasdaq 100.

The aim of this dataset is to provide a comprehensive set of financial, structural and contextual facts and figures which depict the setting in which directors and organisations work. These data cover a selection of characteristics, including demographic and biographic information of FTSE 100 directors and senior executive directors in top management teams in 2008, as well as financial and other corporate indicators. The methodology of this data collection is codified in the user guide (see documentation section below) which further elaborates the assumptions underlying choices made in collating these data.

This quantitative dataset was collected as part of a wider qualitative project which interviewed executive, non-executive directors, chairmen and investors of the FTSE 100 companies, as well as selected investors, auditors, regulators and executive search consultants. The qualitative data are not available from the UK Data Archive.

Further information is available from the Leading FTSE Companies: an interdisciplinary study of directors, boards and corporate governance process ESRC Award web page.

As of February 2025, Unilever Plc was the leading company among consumer staples companies on the London Stock Exchange in terms of its market capitalization, with a total value of over 111 billion British pounds. This was followed by British American Tobacco Plc and Diageo PLC, with values of over 68 billion and 48 billion British pounds, respectively.

Shell had the highest annual revenue of all companies based in the United Kingdom in 2025, at approximately 284 billion U.S. dollars. BP had the second-highest annual revenue at over 189 billion dollars, followed by HSBC Holdings, which had a revenue of around 142 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 336,400 and HSBC at almost 211,000. 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 are 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 as of 2024. HSBC Holdings, meanwhile, was the largest bank in Europe in terms of market capitalization, and was estimated to have the second-highest number of UK-based customers in 2024. 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 quarter of 2025, the UK economy grew by 0.7 percent, emerging from a brief slowdown in growth towards the end of 2024. Consumer Price inflation, has, however, started to increase, with the inflation rate reaching 3.5 percent in April, the highest rate since January 2024. Furthermore, the UK labor market is showing signs of weakness, with quite a high number of job losses since the start of the year. Alongside these generally negative signs, business confidence in the UK has been falling, with the main concern of UK firms being that of taxation, as of early 2025.

As of February 2025, Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc was the leading company in the industrial goods and services sector on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with a market capitalization of 63 billion British pounds. Second on the list was CRH Plc, with a value of 51.8 billion British pounds.

As of February 2025, British holding bank HSBC Holdings Plc was the leading finance company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a total market capitalization of almost 166 billion British pounds. Second in the ranking was Spanish bank Banco Santander S.A., with a market cap of nearly 77.7 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2024, 9.4 percent of FTSE 100 companies had a female CEO, compared with 6.1 percent among FTSE 250 companies. Female representation was overall higher among FTSE 100 companies than FTSE 250 ones, with a higher share of female CEOs, executive directors, and non-executive directors.

As of 2024, there were 19 women chief executive officers (CEOs) at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies in the UK, with nine at FTSE 100 companies, and ten at FTSE 250 ones. This was down from 21 in 2022, the year with the highest number of female CEOs during the provided time period, contrasted with just twelve female CEOs at FTSE companies as recently as 2018. UK's gender pay gap still an issue In 2024, the difference between men and women’s median full-time hourly earnings was seven percent. By comparison, the gender pay gap in 2006 was 12.8 percent, indicating that some progress has been made to address the problem. Some age groups have a significantly larger gender pay gap than others, however. For those over 60, the gender pay was 13.5 percent, with gaps of 12.1 percent and 9.1 percent for workers in their 50s and 40s respectively. Additionally, the gender pay gap varies by industry, with a 29.8 percent pay gap in the finance sector, compared with 2.1 percent in accommodation and food services. Attitudes to gender equality As of 2025, around 45 percent of women in Great Britain thought that more should be done to achieve equal pay, with just a quarter of women believing that this had already been achieved. A larger share of women were in agreement that household responsibilities were not being shared equally, however, at 75 percent of British women. An even larger majority of women thought that more should be done to address sexual misconduct in Britain, with 80 percent of women feeling this way.

Compass Group had by far the highest number of global employees among companies based in the United Kingdom as of 2025, at approximately 500,000 employees. Tesco had the second-highest number of employees at around 336,400, followed by HSBC Holdings which had 211,000 employees. In the same year, HSBC Holdings had an annual revenue of 142.3 billion U.S. dollars, the third-highest among UK-based companies. The oil and gas giant Shell had the highest annual revenue at over 283 billion dollars, ahead of BP at 189 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 Although the UK economy is expected to grow in 2025, growth has been downgraded from earlier forecasts, while inflation and unemployment are expected to be higher than initially thought. According to the business confidence index, sentiment among businesses at the end of 2024 was lower than it has been since early 2021. Furthermore, since the start of 2025, businesses have been shedding jobs at an accelerating rate, possibly due to recent tax rises, which was seen as the main external concern of businesses in early 2025. 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 February 2025, AstraZeneca Plc was by far the leading healthcare company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) with a total market capitalization of 185 billion British pounds. This was followed by GSK Plc and Haleon Plc, with a value of over 60 billion and 36 billion British pounds, respectively.