PART OF THE WEEK: Marks & Spencer returns to the FTSE 100

Marks & Spencer returns to the FTSE 100 next week after a four-year absence.

It’s the latest sign that the High Street favorite has got its mojo back.

Shares in M&S will rejoin the blue chip index on Monday, having risen almost 80 per cent this year and is valued at £4.3 billion.

The return to the Footsie – after being relegated for the first time ever in September 2019 – comes amid a long-awaited recovery under chairman Archie Norman.

M&S’s revival is in stark contrast to the troubles at John Lewis, which this week posted a half-year loss of £59 million and warned its own turnaround will take two years longer than expected.

John Lewis chairman Dame Sharon White said its turnaround plan, which was launched in 2020, will not be completed until 2027-2028.

M&S co-CEOs Stuart Machin and Katie Bickerstaffe outlined their blueprint to overhaul the business in May last year, building on the progress of former boss Steve Rowe.

Their plans got a big boost last month when the company published an unscheduled trading update that showed an 11 percent increase in food sales and a rise of more than 6 percent in its clothing and home division.

That prompted M&S to raise its profit forecasts, prompting a flurry of upgrades from City analysts.

M&S was a founding member of the FTSE 100 in 1984 – a century after the company was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.