I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FTSE 100 hit 10,000 in 2026. Here are five reasons why:
* We’re in the midst of a powerful bull market in global equities right now. I think there’s a decent chance this bull market will continue in 2026 as economic growth is solid and corporate earnings are rising.
* The Footsie’s valuation isn’t that high at the moment. Currently, the median forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio across the index is 13.3, according to Stockopedia. That compares to 18.4 for the S&P 500 index.
* Many stocks in the index with large weightings still look good value to me. Some examples here include HSBC, GSK, and Barclays, which are all trading on P/E ratios of 10 or less.
* To get to 10,000, the index would only need to rise around 5% from here. I think that the Footsie is capable of producing that kind of gain at some stage during the year.
* After a period of weakness, the Healthcare sector has started to perform recently. A continuation of this trend should help the Footsie as AstraZeneca is the largest weighting in the index and GSK also has a decent weighting.
Of course, there are no guarantees that the FTSE 100 will hit 10,000 next year. 2025 has been a strong year for the index so we could potentially see a period of consolidation next year where the index trades sideways. I’m optimistic that it will hit 10,000 at some stage though.
