Shareholders in 888 Holding plc can start to celebrate a bit now that shares in the company have begun to rise. After two months of trading below its IPO price, 888.com, the largest online gambling site in the world, has seen a steady rise in the price of its shares, even surpassing their IPO price, and may even included in the FTSE 250 index on December 19 (based on its closing price on the preceding session on December 16). After the FTSE (100), the FTSE 250 is the most important index on the London Stock Exchange. As a result of the large number of IPOs on the London Stock Exchange, in the last few months, management at the LSE decided to update the composition of the indices to reflect the newly added companies. Starting immediately, the Pizza Hut franchise Whitbread plc (LSE:WTB) and gambling agency William Hill plc (WMH) on the FTSE 100 will be replaced by Kazakh copper company Kazakhmys plc (LSE:KAZ) and shipbuilder P&O. It is presumed that the announcement of 888.com’s inclusion on the FTSE 250 directly influenced the increase in the company’s share prices. Over the past three weeks, the company’s share has risen 35% to ₤1.84, which reflects a return of 5% on its IPO price. Posted on: December 12, 2005
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