The stocks entering and leaving your FTSE 100 tracker this month

Source: Trustnet

Financial trading platform IG Group and Georgian financial services firm Lion Finance  (formerly the Bank of Georgia) will enter into FTSE 100 trackers from 23 March, with airline easyJet and healthcare firm Hikma Pharmaceuticals heading out of the UK’s premier index.

The latest reshuffle, which was conducted after the market close on Wednesday, came at a time of significant volatility after the US and Israel conducted military action on Iran.

A week prior, in its release of indicative changes, Tritax Big Box trust had been slated to make its way into the index at the latest rebalance, with Rightmove removed. However, large moves in recent days shifted these forecasts.

Both Lion Finance and IG Group were eligible for automatic entry, which occurs when a stock’s market capitalisation places it in the 90 largest companies listed in the UK. With a market cap of £4.8bn, Lion Finance is the 81st largest stock while IG Group’s £4.6bn market cap places it in 86th place.

Lion Finance is a portfolio company  of Georgia Capital. It is the first Georgian company to achieve this milestone. Shares shot higher last week after the banking firm’s latest financial report, in which it hiked its dividend as profits rose 22.7%.

Irakli Gilauri, Georgia Capital chairman and chief executive, said the move highlights the firm’s “disciplined execution of its strategy and consistent creation of long-term value for its customers and shareholders”.

Trading platform IG Group has had a choppy year so far but shares have recovered strongly in the past few days as investors anticipate more trading volumes due to political uncertainty.

Breon Corcoran, IG Group chief executive, said joining the FTSE 100 is an “important milestone” for the stock.

Performance of shares YTD

Source: FE Analytics

Moving out, easyJet and Hikma were both forced into automatic exit positions. Firms are automatically removed if they are below the 110th largest company in the FTSE All Share index. The airline sits at 111th, barely making the cut, while the pharma company has dropped to 129th position.

The military action in the Middle East has had a particular impact on the shares of easyJet, which have slumped 9.9% on the back of higher oil prices. However, shares have been on a falling trajectory for some time, down 48% over the past five years and two-thirds from their pre-pandemic levels.

Performance of shares YTD

Source: FE Analytics

In January, the firm’s trading update for the first quarter of 2026 revealed it made a pre-tax loss of £93m, up from £61m in the same period the year prior.

At the time, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the firm reported some “eye-catching losses in the final three months of 2025”, with the firm highlighting the “cut-throat market” of budget flights.

Meanwhile, shares in Hikma Pharmaceuticals tumbled after it cut its guidance for 2026 performance, with profits now expected to be 2-4% higher at $720m-$770m, with forecast margins from its injectables business (30%) underwhelming.

Further down the market-capitalisation spectrum, veterinary firm CVS Group and investment trust The Schiehallion Fund both entered the FTSE 250.

The former has climbed into the index despite uninspiring investors during its half-year report last week, which Hargreaves Lansdown head of equity research Derren Nathan described as a “decent set of first-half numbers” but one that was weakened by “higher costs and sluggish demand in the core UK market”.

Baillie Gifford’s Schiehallion, meanwhile, has surged 27.2% so far in 2026 after it moved to the main market in December last year from its Guernsey listing.

The private-equity trust has performed well thanks to large holdings in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tik-Tok owner ByteDance.

Media company Future, which includes Marie Claire, Money Week and Horse & Hound, left the FTSE 250, as did car dealership software firm Pinewood Technologies Group.