BA drops out of Footsie

British Airways will leave the FTSE 100 Index later this month after its demotion from the list of Britain’s top plcs was confirmed tonight.

It will be joined on the way out by EMI Group and International Power following a quarterly reshuffle of the blue-chip index.

FTSE 250 stocks Rexam, Tomkins and Alliance UniChem take the vacant places after FTSE Group confirmed the changes based on last night’s closing prices.