Footsie turns 40: FTSE 100’s rise, rise and stagnation over four decades

Panic hit the trading floor of the Liffe market in London during a big drop in the FTSE 100 on 1 April 1997. Photograph: Neil Munns/PA

Here is a poor prediction from 40 years ago, 1984, when the FTSE 100 index was born. There is “no question of the FT 30 index disappearing,” opined the deputy chief executive of the Financial Times, arguing that the new-fangled creation would sit happily alongside the paper’s own FT 30, the pre-eminent barometer of the UK stock market since 1935.

It did not work out that way. The FTSE 100 grabbed attention from the off, just as its designers intended. It was created by the London Stock Exchange and the early players in the futures and options market for the then emerging era of electronic trading and derivative products. A catchy shorthand – the Footsie – helped.