The Dow Jones industrial average is shaking up its roster.
Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard â€" three stalwarts of corporate America that have fallen out of favor lately with investors â€" will be removed from the Dow, to be replaced by Goldman Sachs, Visa and Nike, the parent company of the index said on Tuesday.
The change, which will take effect at the start of trading on Sept. 23, is the largest revision to the index since April 2004, when AT&T, Eastman Kodak and International Paper were dropped. And it reflects the changing landscape on Wall Street and in the broader economy.
The decision to remove the three companies was prompted by their sagging stock prices and by the index committee’s desire to diversify the mix of companies represented, according to S.&P. Dow Jones Indices, the company that operates the index.
It will not affect the level of the index, the company said.
With 30 blue-chip companies as its members, the Dow index is closely watched as a barometer of the broader market. It has recovered strongly since the turmoil of the financial crisis and is up about 15 percent this year.
For Alcoa, its exclusion is a symbolic comedown. The aluminum company, which joined the index in 1959, has traditionally kicked off earnings season. In recent years, the company has contended with a global slump in aluminum demand.
Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard, more recent entrants to the Dow, are each confronting challenges of their own.
The bank, whose entry into the Dow was announced in November 2008, has been working to shrink its business in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Its stock has languished as it has dealt with the legal fallout from its acquisition of the subprime lender Countrywide Financial in 2008.
Hewlett-Packard was only the second computer company in the Dow when it was added in 1997, coming after I.B.M. Now, it is fighting to turn around its business. In an example of its continuing woes, the company took a large writedown last year on its disastrous acquisition of the British software company Autonomy.
H.P.’s shares fell about 1.5 percent on Tuesday after the changes were announced. Bank of America’s stock, however, rose modestly.
The new entrants, by contrast, are seen as having relatively bright futures. Goldman has survived the financial crisis in better shape than rivals. In July, the firm reported that its profit had doubled in the second quarter.
Visa, the San Francisco-based payments giant, has enjoyed a buoyant stock price in recent years on the strength of new payment technology. The company’s stock was up about 1.6 percent on Tuesday, while Goldman’s stock rose more than 3 percent.
Nike, too, has experienced a rising stock price in recent years, and its stock was up about 1.8 percent on Tuesday.
