FTSE 100 Competition 2024 Results week 1

FTSE_100_WEEK_ONE_RESULTS.pdf

In the final trading days leading up until the start of our competition the FTSE 100 index closed down for three days in a row. A fall in the price of oil to 77.63 dollars per barrel pushed the energy companies towards the bottom of the pack. Ocado, Airtel Africa, Mondi, Smurfit Kappa and Marks & Spencer also lost value which might be good news for those who selected them and get larger holdings than expected. The FTSE 100 therefore opened at 7,615.54 on Monday 5th February. 

Firstly for your information the most popular and least popular selections in our FTSE 100 competition.

Most popular investments by value

AstraZenica
Diageo
GlaxoSmithKline
Hikma Pharmaceuticals
Unilever 
Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust 

Least popular investments by value

Standard Chartered
British Land
RSA Insurance Group
Royal Bank of Scotland
Centrica plc
Intermediate Capital Group

The first week saw a slide in the index closing on Friday at 7,572.58. That is a 43 point fall in the week.  It was an up and down week and on Tuesday four days of declines were halted with the FTSE 100 closing higher for the first time in five days. It briefly rose to its highest level since January 11.

Tuesday’s boost came after an excellent performance by BP which saw its shares up nearly 5.5% the day after it pleased shareholders with more returns and a higher-than-expected profit.

The downward trend returned however on Wednesday hit by poor performances from supermarkets and the mining sector. A disappointing update from Sainsbury’s meant they closed down more than 6%.  The company’s drop also weighed on Tesco, which saw its shares close 3.41% lower.

Between them, the two supermarkets – and mining companies like Antofagasta, Anglo American and Endeavour Mining – wiped out much of Tuesday’s 68-point gain.

Thursday was a bad day for AstraZeneca and SSE as the businesses disappointed shareholders with updates in the morning.  SSE flagged that it was facing delays to its Dogger Bank A wind farm, part of what is going to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm.  SSE would finish down 6.7% on the week. Meanwhile, Astra’s shares plummeted by 5.8%% on the week after the business reported a set of fourth quarter numbers which were lower than expected.

Shares in London dropped again on Friday, with some of the FTSE 100’s biggest mining groups helping to push the index to its lowest finish in two weeks.  Fresnillo, Glencore and Anglo American were among the biggest losers.

In company news, Barclays said that it would buy the retail banking operations of Tesco Bank for £600 million. It will give Barclays the supermarket brand’s credit cards, loans, savings and banking operations. It will also add around 2,800 staff to the Barclays payroll. Share price of the bank met little reaction. 

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 this week were:-

DS Smith +15.02% (merger talks at boxmaker)
Smurfit Kappa +10.97% (JP Morgan lifted target on packaging firm)
Compass +4.46% (strong sales growth boosts caterer)
Hikma Pharmaceuticals +4.46% (drug maker launches painkiller jab)
BP +4.31% (strong profits)

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 this week were:-

Airtel Africa -8.26% (Barclays target cut dents telecoms company)
Vodafone -8.21% (Mobile giant slides after sales slump)
Barratt Developments-7.99% (pricey takeover of rival hits housebuilder)
JD Sports -7.96% (consumer spending sluggish)
Glencore -7.79% (activist investor attacks mining group)

In our competition well done to those entrants that selected the best performing shares. Our leader after the first week is Mac Scot 9 who just edged past Spider. Zona Paton was also one of the three whose investment value went up by more than £1000 in the week.

Sixteen of our 57 entrants remained in positive values at the end of the week but 20 made loss in excess of £1000. Commiserations with Lewis and James Grieve who have now given everyone else a head start. Plenty time to alter things though.

Next week we will watch and find out how the FTSE will react to new UK unemployment, inflation, fourth quarter GDP and retail sales data. Maybe those mining shares will dig themselves out of a hole?