Around the globe, major stock markets are hitting record highs, notably in the US, Europe and Japan. But that’s more than can be said for the FTSE 100, which has fallen back over the past 12 months.
The floundering Footsie
For the record, the US S&P 500 is up 27.5% over the last 12 months. In Europe, the STOXX 600 index is ahead 7.1% over the same period. in Japan, the TOPIX index has soared by 34.2%.
Meanwhile, the Footsie has trailed, losing 3.2% of its value over the last year.
That said, all the above returns exclude cash dividends, which are particularly generous in the UK. Yet investing in large-cap UK stocks has been a mostly thankless task of late. And some FTSE shares have performed much, much worse than others.
Winners and losers
Over the last 52 weeks, 52 FTSE 100 companies have seen their shares rise. These gains range from 0.3% to 165.3%. The average increase across these winners is 2.5% — comfortably beating the wider index.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, we have 48 losing stocks. These losses range from 0.6% to a painful 47.3%. The average decline for these fallers is 17.1%.
The dogs of London
Now for some uncomfortable news for certain shareholders (including me and my family).
Here are the three worst performers in the UK’s main market index over the past year, sorted from largest to smallest loss:
| Company | Business | Share price | Market value | One-year change* | Five-year change* |
| Anglo American | Mining | 1,726.6p | £23.9bn | -40.7% | -13.2% |
| St James’s Place Plc | Financial services | 617.8p | £3.5bn | -47.2% | -32.8% |
| Burberry Group plc | Fashion | 1,287p | £4.7bn | -47.3% | -33.4% |
These dirty dogs of the London market include a leading global miner, a troubled financial-advice provider and a major luxury fashion brand. Losses among these laggards range from almost 41% to over 47%, with the average slump being 45%.
Even worse, with the FTSE 100 up 8.1% over the past half-decade, all three stocks have also underperformed their index over the last five years.
Anglo’s been awful
Alas, my wife and I own one poor performer listed above: British-South African mining group Anglo American (LSE: AAL). At its 52-week high, this stock closed at 3,077.05p on 3 March 2023. But by 8 December, it had crashed to a low of 1,630p, before rebounding.
We bought this stock in August 2023, paying 2,202p a share for our holding. Thus, at the current share price, we’re nursing a paper loss of 21.6% to date. Ouch.
What’s more, following a slide in earnings, Anglo has cut its dividend payout — the thing we originally bought it for. The dividend yield has plunged to 4.2% — only slightly above the Footsie’s yearly cash yield of 4%.
Then again, though this stock has dived by a quarter since 1 December, I’m not intending to sell our stake.
Instead, I shall do nothing, hoping that a recovery in demand for precious and industrial metals returns in 2024-25. With luck, China’s economy will pick up speed, pushing up prices for metals. Fingers crossed!
