General Motors is on its way to repaying American taxpayers for its 2009 bailout, but this week the car maker will mark another milestone.
It will rejoin the Standard & Poor’s 100- and 500-stock indexes for the first time in years.
After market close on Thursday, G.M. will replace H. J. Heinz, which is being taken private by Berkshire Hathaway and the Brazilian-backed investment firm 3G Capital, Standard & Poor’s announced on Monday.
The move holds some symbolic significance for G.M., which took itself public again in late 2010 to begin paying down its tab from the United States government. Since then, the auto maker has resumed earning profits and now holds a market value of over $47 billion, though its stock price is barely up from when it began trading again on the New York Stock Exchange.
Making Monday even more of a banner day for companies rescued by the federal government, Standard & Poor’s also said that the American International Group would become part of its 100-stock index. It will replace the oil drilling equipment maker Baker Hughes, whose market capitalization has fallen below the minimum level of $21 billion.
But don’t read anything more into the index moves than valuation, Standard & Poor’s warns in its statement: “Additions to and deletions from S.&P. Dow Jones Indices do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the companies involved.â€
