Fortescue joins top 50 listed companies

Fortescue Metals Group has risen into the ranks of the top 50 most valuable companies on the Australian share market thanks to soaring iron ore prices which have nearly quadrupled the miner's half-year profit and stoked investor demand.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said Fortescue - and gambling giant Aristocrat Leisure - had been added to the S&P/ASX 50 Index after its quarterly review.

Fortescue was previously an ASX 50 company, but it was bumped from the list in 2015 to make way for South32 when it spun out of BHP Billiton.

Gold miner Evolution Mining and toll road developer and operator Macquarie Atlas Roads Group have been added to the S&P/ASX 100.

Those companies took the place of liver treatment medical device company Sirtex Medical, and Blackmores.

No changes were made to the S&P/ASX 200 Index.

Ausdrill and Silver Lake Resources have climbed their way into the S&P/ASX 300, pushing out Alexium International Group, Cash Converters International, Paladin Energy and Kathmandu Holdings.

Paladin's bump from the index follows news yesterday that the uranium miner had received a request from CNNC Overseas Uranium Holdings that it "commence a process to determine the fair value" of its subsidiary which owns Langer Heinrich mine that it is trying to sell to CNNC.

In the All Ordinaries Index, 88 Energy, Atlas Iron, Ausdrill, Blackham Resources, Eastern Goldfields, Neometals and NRW Holdings were among a number of Perth-based companies to be added to the list, while Wellard, 1-Page, Aspen Group, Migme, MMA Offshore, TNG and Toro Energy were among those removed.