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Monday, November 10, 2008

Unisys will be dropped from S&P 500 index

Standard & Poor's Corp. is dropping Unisys Corp. from its widely watched S&P 500 index as of the close of trading today.

The Blue Bell information technology company had been ranked last in terms of market capitalization among the 500 U.S. companies that make up the index.

The bear market for stocks has pulled down the value of just about every company this year. And Standard & Poor's had lowered the minimum value to be included in the S&P 500 to $4 billion from $5 billion.

But Unisys was far below that. It has a market cap of about $260 million.

Its replacement is People's United Financial Inc., a holding company for a savings and loan based in Connecticut. People's United has a market cap of about $6.2 billion. S&P will add the financial stock after the close of trading on Wednesday.

Since S&P made the announcement of the change Friday, Unisys shares have been falling, while People's United's have been rising. The major reason is that managers of index funds that emulate the S&P 500 have to sell and buy shares of both companies to make sure their funds match the base index.

 
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:15 PM  Permalink | File Under: Financial Services | | Investing, Markets | | Technology | 2 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:28 PM, 11/10/2008
    Looks like it was the right decision to reject the naming rights on Liberty 2.....
    — phillyscooter
  • Comment removed.


2 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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