Britain's index of leading companies yesterday received a major overhaul as established industrial groups including British Steel were forced out in favour of high technology firms.
The FTSE Actuaries UK Indices Committee decided that British Steel, Blue Circle Industries, RMC Group and Enterprise Oil should all leave the FTSE 100 Index.
They will make way for telecoms groups Telewest Communications, Sema Group, Securicor and Colt Telecom, which has never made a penny of profit.
Leisure group Rank will also drop out of the big league, while Southern Electric will move up.
The changes mark the huge shifts in the British economy, where traditional industries are losing their control to service sector newcomers.
The high proportion of telecoms groups set for promotion reflects the enormous expectations of future profits in the sector from the Internet and other communications networks.
In the lower leagues, Coca Cola Beverages, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, First Choice Holidays, Psion and London Bridge Software Holdings made it for FTSE-250 selection.
Bryant Group, Fairey Group, Danka Business Systems, House of Fraser and Cairn Energy all dropped out.
In the event of a FTSE 100 company being deleted from the index due to an event like a merger, six companies have been shortlisted to take their place.
They are Gallaher Group, Imperial Tobacco, CMG, Dixons, Anglian Water and Britannic Assurance.
The new line-up will kick in on September 21st.
On Monday oil group Lasmo was squeezed out of the top index after BAT's former financial services division, now known as Allied Zurich, began life as a separate company. It instantly qualified for the FTSE 100 thanks to its high market value.
While British investors are more likely to track a bigger spread of shares such as the FTSE All Share index, the FTSE-100 is still favoured by overseas managers.
