Here are the star performers of 2009.
It's been an amazing year for the stock market. After early wobbles, we've soared since March.
On a total return basis, which includes dividends, the FTSE All-Share index is up 29% since 1 January. Of course, the year's not over yet, but this would be the UK's best stock market performance since 1989. If you adjust for inflation, it would be the best year since 1977!
As has become tradition at the Fool, here we list the year's big winners. Looking at the FTSE All-Share and Fledgling indices (some 800 companies in total), they have been:
The star performer is car dealer Pendragon. Laden with debts, there were concerns that it would survive earlier in the year. It started 2009 at 1.65p and reached 45p in August (when the year to date gain was over 2,600%). Since then its share price has fallen back to 23.5p.
Other companies in the top ten include retailers, travel-related companies, a miner and a property company. I looked at some of them myself. Did I buy? Of course not!
Blue chips
A honourable mention should go to Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ), which was the biggest gainer in the FTSE 100 with a rise of 446%. The copper producer just missed out on our top ten.
By the way, you probably won't be surprised to hear that the worst performer in the FTSE 100 was Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS), with a loss of just over 40%. The bad news is, as taxpayers, we now own the vast majority of it!
Easy doubles
Looking at the 600+ firms in the FTSE All-Share, it's remarkable to note that, if you had chosen a share at random, you had a slightly better chance of picking one that doubled than picking one that fell in price. 91 companies produced a gain of 100% or more while just 88 would have lost you money!
The picture is much the same when you look at AIM shares. There are about 900 companies in the junior market's version of the All-Share index. 251 of these doubled while 235 fell. What odds would you have got on that back in January?
AIM on target
Here are the top 8 shares on AIM this year, each of which has been a 'ten bagger'.
Although these gains look enticing, I suspect very, very few people will have made life-changing profits from them.
Most of these big winners fell heavily in 2007 and 2008, so many holders were just recouping previous losses. You would have really struggled to buy these shares in any significant volume at the start of the year and, if you did, they were unlikely to form a significant percentage of your portfolio. Still, it's nice to dream.
For example, look at Amur Minerals. The nickel miner was threatening to delist this time last year and its shares were valued at just 0.17p. The whole company was valued at just £200,000. With major holders owning at least half the shares, you would have been hard pressed to buy more than a few hundred pounds worth, if that. And the shares are still well south of their 33p flotation price in 2006.
That said, if you owned any of these shares, and held onto them all the way up, congratulations! I believe it's your round...
Invest the Foolish way
Here at the Fool, we're much more interested in buying solid companies with the potential for handsome gains over the long term. It may not be as exciting but it's definitely the percentage play. So check out Shares 2010, which has 10 great investment ideas from our ever-growing army of freelance writers.
And, if you want to join us as we invest our £50,000 real-money portfolio at Champion Shares PRO, you can register your interest here. We've invested just 10% of our funds to date, so we're just getting started.
Happy Christmas from all of us here at The Motley Fool. May you have a prosperous and Foolish 2010!
