How To Buy FTSE 100 Shares

Written by Editorial Team
Last updated: 19th November 2023

How to buy FTSE 100 shares.

We show you how to buy shares in the FTSE 100 in less than 10 minutes.

See our top investment platforms:

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You can buy the FTSE 100 by:

• Buying individual shares – you could buy shares of companies that make up the FTSE 100 or
• You could buy an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) – that tracks the FTSE 100

Either way, we show you how you can do both:

6 Steps:

You can buy an individual share of a company listed in the FTSE 100 such as AstraZeneca , BAE Systems or BP.

Our view:  The next generation of online trading platform means you can get setup & buy UK shares in as little as 5 minutes!

1. Select a share platform – See below our 3 top platform picks
2. Open your share account – To do this, you will need your bank details and national insurance number
3. Fund your account – You will need to fund your a/c with a debit or credit card or bank transfer
4. Search for the FTSE 100 share or ETF using the stock code – Type in the stock code into the search box
5. Check out the latest info and price for the selected share – Some platforms offer free research and analysis
6. Buy the share or ETF – Nice and easy!

Why use a platform to buy FTSE 100 shares?

You don’t have to buy and sell FTSE 100 shares or ETFs using a share platform to manage your investments.

You could go down the old-school route using a stockbroker directly to buy and sell investments.

This can involve lots of paperwork and waiting for the postman to send you paper statements which for some people may be perfectly adequate.

Your preference may be to deal with a real person to make things happen – whilst this can work, it can be slow, cumbersome, and potentially more expensive.

The good news is that with technological advances,  investors now have a significant choice when buying UK and international shares.

Benefits of using a trading platform include:

• Lower trading costs
• Easy access to the UK and international stock markets
• 24/7 access to your investments
• You can hold all your tax-efficient investments, such as ISAs and SIPPs, in one place:  including lifetime ISAs, the right to buy ISAs and  Junior ISAs
• Plus, any other fund holdings or shares that you’re trading outside of a tax-free environment from a general trading account

What is a FTSE 100 exchange-traded fund (ETF)?

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are investments that mirror the performance of a particular market index, such as the FTSE 100.

They are passive investments and aim to replicate the movement of an index and deliver returns closely matched to the index being tracked.

An ETF that tracks the FTSE 100  returns will reflect the performance of the top 100 UK firms by capitalisation that make up the index.

Current constituents of the FTSE 100 include companies such as Anglo American, AVIVA, Barclays and Unilever.

3 FTSE 100 ETF Fund Picks

Each of the funds listed above employs a “passive” investment strategy designed to replicate the performance of the FTSE 100 index.

1. iShares Core FTSE 100 UCITS ETF

Launched in 2000, this index tracker fund replicates the FTSE 100 and has a low ongoing charge of 0.07%.

Managed by BlackRock, this is a large fund with over £7.8 billion (ISF) invested.

iShares run two versions of the Fund:

• • • Accumulated Fund (stock code: CUKX) where dividends are accumulated.
    • Distribution Fund (stock code: ISF) where dividends are paid out. If the Fund is held in an ISA, this income is not subject to income tax*.

2. Vanguard FTSE 100 UCITS ETF

Launched in 2012, this index tracker fund replicates the FTSE 100 Index and has a super low ongoing charge of 0.09%.

Managed by Vanguard, the Fund has £3.4 billion (VUKG) invested at the time of writing.

Vanguard runs two versions of the Fund:

• • • Accumulated Fund (stock code: VUKG) where dividends are accumulated.
    • Distribution Fund (stock code: VUKE) where dividends are paid out. If the Fund is held in an ISA, this income is not subject to income tax*.

3. HSBC ETFS PLC FTSE 100 UCITS ETF

Launched in 2009, this index tracker fund replicates the FTSE 100 Index and has a super low ongoing charge of 0.07%.

Managed by HSBC Global Asset Management, the Fund has £382 million invested at the time of writing.

HSBC run one version of the Fund:

• • • Distribution Fund (stock code: HUKX) where dividends are paid out. If the Fund is held in an ISA, this income is not subject to income tax*.