Size Matters

We invest in shares of many different sizes. Nucleus for instance is worth about £110,000,000 (£110 million). Together we own £1,250,000 worth of shares (£1.25 million). We therefore own about 1% of their shares. Together we could buy 75% of Nucleus, but that would be putting all of our eggs in one basket.

The largest share in the UK right now is Astra Zeneca at £110,000,000,000 (£110,000 million or £110 billion). So Astra Zeneca is 110,000 times larger than Nucleus. Together we own £2,100,000 of their shares (£2.1 million). Thankfully they have many more drugs in their pipeline, other than the recently stalled Covid-19 vaccine. We own only an infinitesimal amount of their shares between us.

Astra Zeneca is the largest component of the FTSE 100 index. It accounts for 7.2% of the index which in turn tells us the overall size of all 100 shares. The FTSE 100 index currently stands at £1,527,778,000,000 (£1,527,778 million or £1,527 billion or £1.5 trillion)

Comparisons

These numbers tell us something about market indices. If you have been a client for sometime you will remember that the FTSE 100 index is a market weighted index. In simple terms it means that although there are 100 companies on the index, every company is not represented with an equal 1% holding. If you buy the index, £7 in every £100 invested is in AstraZeneca. In fact £24 in every £100 invested would be in AstraZeneca, BHP, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC and Diageo. One quarter of your investment in just 5 shares alone.

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