EDINBURGH-based Cairn Energy will face ejection from the FTSE-100 when the London Stock Exchange's blue-chip index is rejigged today.
Daily Mail, the newspaper group, and fund manager Schroders are in a head-to-head race to win Cairn's place on the bourse's top barometer.
The index is revamped every quarter. To be eligible to join the top 100, companies on the FTSE-250 index must rank 90 or above while FTSE-100 members ranking 111 or below risk demotion.
A FTSE committee will meet today and rank companies based on their market value at the close of last night's session.
Shares in Cairn, an oil exploration company, have shed about 25% of their value during the past three months and stood 115th in yesterday's dealing. The company will almost certainly give up its FTSE-100 spot and slide into the 250 index when results of the revamp are made known.
City analysts said the oil firm suffers from low yields from its Rajasthan field in India and a weak response to its Indian division's public offering.
Daily Mail has seen its share price rise about 10% during the past quarter. It is currently ranked at 94, according to market value.
Richard Lake, a technical analyst at brokers Brewin Dolphin, said Cairn will definitely be thrown out of the Footsie because it was lying in 115th place but the race to replace was still open.
Schroders and Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest pub operator, have an outside chance to win promotion.
Membership in the FTSE-100 helps shares because index tracker funds have to buy stocks that form part of the market's benchmark.
However, some analysts are convinced that Schroders, which is in the 96th spot, will win a coveted place on the Footsie because its share price has been boosted by better-than-forecast earnings last month.
It faces competition from Punch, ranked in 98th place.
Meanwhile, Drax Group may be able to pull off one of the Footsie's great escapes.
A month ago the coal-fired power station operator looked certain to be demoted as warm weather cut into wholesale electricity prices.
However, the past two weeks has seen Drax shares rally on a combination of improving prices, optimism about forthcoming results and speculation that it may become a takeover target.
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