Are there many ASX50 ETFs or funds @tomsmithidg ? I know that some funds only invest in the ASX200 or the ASX300 companies, or use one of those two indices as their investable universe, and large-cap funds might use the ASX100, or possibly the ASX50, but I'm not personally aware of any that are limited to only the ASX50 other than SFY - the SPDR S&P/ASX 50 Fund - which Google assures me is the only ETF on the ASX that exclusively tracks the top 50 largest companies by market capitalisation.

So SFY would have to sell out of PME and buy ALQ instead, but probably much closer to the 22nd, or on the 22nd.

I think being dropped from the ASX200 or ASX300 would be more significant from that POV. But there might be some large cap funds that think that ASX50 index inclusion matters.

Happy to hear other points of view on this.

@Bear77 , I know of 2. As you know I am not a fan of ETF's so I don't really follow them. I assume if there are 2 there will be more. No idea of the size of these things, but they seem to be all the rage.

Here's hoping that FFM joining the ASX200 puts a rocket under the share price as ETF's have to buy it.

What's the second one @tomsmithidg ? Google tells me there's only SFY for the ASX50.

XFL - I just checked to ensure it still exists (it does). Just had a look to see what was in it and it doesn't list PME.

XFL is the ticker code for the ASX50 Index @tomsmithidg rather than an index-tracking ETF, so XFL is the index, not an ETF, and you can't invest in the index except through an index tracking ETF, and the only ETF that tracks the ASX50 Index is SFY.

PME is listed in the ASX50 (XFL) - in the alphabetical list that Commsec provides me - right there between ORG and QAN - however it will be removed on the 22nd.

Well just really locking it in that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to ETFs @Bear77. Lucky I'm not investing in any. The list I was looking at was the ASX 50, not SFY, and PME doesn't appear on that list (no idea why it wouldn't be). Not in any way indicating that what you are saying isn't spot on, I'm sure it is, was more me thinking out loud in response to your question and what I was seeing (note to self - stop thinking out loud on the forums). Next time I'll check in my actual trading app instead of on Intelligent Investor.

On the upside, looking at 'what was in' XFL on Intelligent Investor my attention has been drawn to AMC. So while I may now look like a Muppet in this thread here with you, I've found another stock of interest to me. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

No worries @tomsmithidg - if you use Commsec, log in and then click on the following link: https://www2.commsec.com.au/quotes/constituents?stockCode=XFL&exchangeCode=ASX and it will give you the 50 constituents of the ASX50 (XFL) in alphabetical order, and you'll see PME there as shown on the screenshot below:

BTW, if you are on that page and you click on the green "BUY" button at the top, it'll take you to the trading page and say "Please enter a valid code" (see below) because you can't buy shares in an S&P/ASX Index, even though Commsec does give the appearance that you can on the previous page (above).

Don't worry, the only dumb questions are those never asked, and I make my fair share of mistakes, including here on SM; I was saying last week that some disappointing drilling results for CRS did NOT include the two drillholes that everybody was waiting for that should have intersected gold below the bonanza grade hit they had reported a few weeks ago, and it was then politely pointed out to me here that the announcement DID in fact include one of those holes (the upper and most important one, just not in the part of the announcement that I was looking at) and there was bugger-all gold there, so the market was reacting appropriately by selling CRS down, the opposite of what I had just suggested in my own post on CRS. Dohhh!

Thanks again @Bear77 , I don't use Commsec, I'm sure CMC will have a similar function though. I'll be very interested in whether dropping out of the ASX50 will push PME lower and joining ASX200 will push FFM up.

I wonder what other stocks have recently joined the ASX200 so we can see what happened to their price subsequently. That might be my next Google.

The following link provides a history of ASX200 (XJO) additions and removals @tomsmithidg - https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx200/announcements

Sample:

Note: Market Index got NSR and ALK around the wrong way in that list, right at the top, because National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) was removed from the S&P/ASX 200 Index when the company was acquired by a consortium of Brookfield Asset Management and GIC. ALK replaced NSR in the ASX200 index at that time, so Alkane (ALK) was added not deleted from the index.

It looks to me like the results are very company specific, however it pays to keep in mind that index inclusion generally means the company's share price has been rising over the past 12 months, making their market cap larger, so they will often continue the same trend after index inclusion, regardless of index inclusion, simply because the same share price drivers still remain in place, such as a gold producer entering an index because of a rising gold price - other examples include DBI in Sept. '25 and Imdex (IMD) in March '25.

The flip side of that is that when a company is removed from an index it is almost always because the company's share price has declined significantly so their market cap now doesn't qualify them to remain in the index, or they have been acquired by another company (NSR, 4DX, GOR, BKW, SPR, DEG), so where it's a share price fall that has resulted in them being dumped from an index, there are likely factors at play that may continue to push that company's share price down further regardless of that company being removed from an index. Examples of that are BAP in December '25, LIC & CU6 in September '25, and of course Audinate (AD8) in March 2025.

But some companies just have declining share prices after index inclusions, such as SLX, EBO, TUA; and some go up initially and then fall away later, such as NXL, ASB & NCK.

If you click on the link below and scroll down, you'll get a page that has links on it to all of the S&P/ASX Indices rebalance announcements going back to September 2011:

https://www.marketindex.com.au/rebalance-announcements

Just click on the month and year on the left side of the list to access the announcement. The page should look like this:

The reason why I think the ASX200 and ASX300 inclusions and removals matter more (than other indices) is that there are more ETFs tracking the ASX200, and those ETFs are more popular and are therefore larger, and the ASX200 and ASX300 indices also form the boundaries of investable universes for a number of funds and fundies, with the ASX300 usually being the limit of the investable universe for the millions of Australians who invest directly in shares via their Industry Super Fund (like AustralianSuper and CBUS).

@Bear77 , for sure, as mentioned in one of your posts above, passive index investing is now distorting the market. This has been one of my concerns with ETFs all along, but ditto for algorithms, bot trading, and AI directed trades. It seems like fundamentals don't cut it anymore. I also wonder if entry into the ASX200 will get investor eyes that otherwise may never have come across FFM.

I agree with all that @tomsmithidg however I do believe that fundamentals tend to win out eventually once everything else that impacts a company's share price subsides or becomes less impactful. Share prices eventually follow earnings, although often not immediately. Outlook also plays a big part, as we discussed with ARB recently.

I do certainly agree that getting added to the ASX200 index gives a company an added level of legitamacy in terms of an investment proposition. In my experience it does help, so gives added momentum to a company that has a rising share price already due to positive fundamentals - or a positive outlook in FFM's case as they are a pre-revenue company with no earnings, as are MI6 (a gold project developer) who are also getting promoted into the ASX200 index on the 22nd of this month.

So that was the purpose of my original straw here under FFM - which I hold - to suggest that in addition to a positive outlook for copper and a superb project there in Newfoundland with great local infrastructure (low-cost Hydro power on their doorstep, next to a deep water port, etc.), being promoted from the ASX300 into the ASX200 Index will put them on more radars and that can't be a bad thing in my opinion (as an FFM shareholder).