Royal Mail is set to charge back into the FTSE100 index after its shares surged during the pandemic.
The stock has risen nearly four-fold since hitting an all-time low of 124p in April last year and yesterday closed at 578.6p, down 2.8 per cent, or 17p, on the day.
That valued the company at almost £6billion – enough to propel it back into the blue chip index of the country’s 100 leading listed firms.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Royal Mail has opened a bulging sack of profits for the year, showing its success in capitalising on the e-commerce boom.’
The quarterly reshuffle will be based on closing prices on Tuesday next week and announced on Wednesday.
Royal Mail, a former state monopoly that was privatised for 330p per share in 2013, is one of Britain’s biggest companies, with 140,000 staff.
But bosses were left red-faced in 2018 as it was demoted to the FTSE250 following a string of embarrassments.
After Rico Back replaced Moya Greene as chief executive in 2018, a row erupted over a £6m ‘golden hello’ handed to the German boss.
Under Back’s leadership, the share price collapsed as poor industrial relations led to strike threats and modernisation efforts stumbled.
The stock crashed to a record low of 124.3p in April 2020, as global stock markets were roiled by the pandemic.
But the company has bounced back under the leadership of Keith Williams – and thanks to the boom in parcel deliveries during the pandemic.
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