Robinhood and AppLovin to join the S&P 500, sending shares soaring

Trading app Robinhood Markets, mobile app monetization company AppLovin, and building company Emcor Group, will be added to the S&P 500 later this month, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced Friday.

Robinhood will replace Caesar’s Entertainment, AppLovin will take MarketAxess Holding’s spot, and Emcor will take Enphase Energy’s place. The changes take effect on September 22.

The S&P 500 rebalances the index quarterly. No changes were made at the start of the most recent quarter in June.

“The changes ensure each index is more representative of its market capitalization range. The companies being removed from the S&P SmallCap 600 are no longer representative of the small-cap market space,” the S&P Dow Jones Indices said.

Robinhood shares up following S&P promotion

In the minutes after the announcement, shares of Robinhood were up 7.2%, while AppLovin rose 7.8%, and Emcor, 2.7%.

Strategy, a bitcoin company that was rumored to have possibly made the cut, was passed over. Its stock took a 2.5% dive following the announcement. The promotions come after Robinhood CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev had expressed hope that the company could join the S&P 500 soon.

“It’s a difficult thing to plan for,” Tenev said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June. “I think it’s one of those things that hopefully happens.”

The S&P announcement could boost Robinhood’s expansion toward becoming a one-stop banking service: In March, the company announced plans to launch Robinhood Banking, a service for its Gold members that would include perks like having cash delivered to you instead of having to go to the ATM.

Taxi company Uber also got a boost: It has been promoted to the S&P 100, replacing Charter Communications, the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced.