SOME of the country's most famous companies tumbled out of the exclusive FTSE-100 when the index receives its quarterly shake-up.

The list of demoted companies is headed by engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and brewing group Scottish & Newcastle.

Other casualties included struggling steel manufacturer Corus, formerly British Steel, which announced 750 redundancies on Teesside this year, along with building materials group Hanson and Associated British Foods.

Those moving up the scale to take the places of the more household names include a raft of new economy companies riding high on the recent technology sector revival.

Their charge into the Footsie is led by newly-formed Granada Media and computer services group Dimension Data.

Other new entrants include electronics groups Spirent and Electrocomponents, and software designer Baltimore Technologies.

Baltimore more than any other company reflects the ups and downs of the tech sector this year having first won a spot in the Footsie in the March review only to lose it again three months later in the June shake-up.

The company's fortunes mirror the surge in value in tech stocks at the start of this year, their subsequent collapse and recent revival which has sparked new highs for the year in the whole stock market.

The changes were unveiled following a meeting of the Equity Indices Committee at FTSE, the company which runs the major indices in the UK.

Analysts said the latest surge by the tech sector reflected a more reasoned approach to investing in the new economy than had been the case earlier in the year.

One analyst said: "Those companies such as Baltimore that have real businesses are coming into focus while conceptual companies such as many of the dot coms are losing out."