Trio take place in top index

18th Sep 2009 17:33

Balfour Beatty, Pennon and Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust spent their last day in London's premier league Friday as demotion to the FTSE 250 comes into effect tonight.The latest quarterly reshuffle, based on closing share prices two weeks ago, sees pest control firm Rentokil Initial, hotel and pub group Whitbread and property company Segro gain promotion.Companies must figure among the top 90 companies by market capitalisation in order to gain automatic entry to the blue chip index.Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inns hotel chain and Costa coffee business, yo-yoed back to the top, having been dropped at the last reshuffle in June.Its place was guaranteed after bosses forecast profits this year will be at the higher end of forecasts. Joining the FTSE 250 are St Modwen Properties, Trinity Mirror and the Paragon Group of Companies, replacing a number of investment companies.