FTSE 100 Competition Results Week 10
Our competition has a new leader - John Beswarick who moves from fifth to pole position
Our competition has a new leader - John Beswarick who moves from fifth to pole position - but the top seven remain the same entrants with three weeks trading remaining. Only two weeks ago John occupied 34th place so if you are losing faith in your selections, this meteoric rise demonstrates almost anything is possible.
The FTSE opened the week on 7303.96 and closed at 7,347.91.
69 of the 100 were up on the week.
Risers
Auto Trader Group plc up 17.6%
ITV plc up 11.7%
Polymetal International up 9.3%
Antofagasta Holdings up 8.8%
Fresnillo up 7.8%
Pearson plc up 7.0%
Fallers
Johnson Matthey down 16.4%
International Consolidated Airlines down 8.8%
Whitbread plc down 6.6%
InterContinental Hotels down 5.7%
AstraZeneca down 5.5%
AVEVA Group down 5.1%
Early in the week housebuilders created a downward trend with Persimmon reaching into the top five worst performers, while the strong falls were enough to counteract a great performance from Primark’s owner AB Foods. The business reported a strong showing in its most recent set of annual results, and topped the FTSE 100 with an 8% rise.
On Wednesday ITV and Marks & Spencer were the star performers and Thursday saw the FTSE 100 pushed close to its pre-pandemic crash levels as an extreme rise for AutoTrader helped offset an unusually large fall for Johnson Matthey.
AutoTrader Group shares surged to the top of the FTSE 100 after reporting record revenue of £215.4 million for its first-half pushing profits to a new £152m record. The company’s shares gain 17.6% on the week.
While AutoTrader soared, it was the performances of London’s mining giants that truly lifted the index. Copper and precious metals prices stayed strong, pushing up BHP, Antofagasta, Polymetal, Glencore and others.
Johnson Matthey shares went in the opposite direction as a result of the loss of its chief executive of eight years, a profit warning and a newly announced plan to exit its battery materials business just as battery power is being touted as a major tool against global warming did not impress investors. Shares dropped 16.4% on the week.
AstraZeneca plunged 5.5% after its quarterly profit missed expectations, although the company said it would start making a profit from its Covid-19 vaccine from the fourth quarter onwards.
In our competition 54 of the 76 contestants made gains this week. Mover of the week was The Piper up 27 places as a result of his best of the week gain of £2965. Ginger Biscuit gained 24 (+£2775) and both Jane Mitchell and Bullish Boris were up 18. Slider of the week was AnnieBanani down 33 places and £2727 with Donald Mackay also losing 29 places.
Sammy The Tammy lost £2363 and Douglas S £1654 to see them drop down from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 4th. Locin Trauts is hanging in there in third while Lewis Grieve, Ken Mackay and Kelly’s Zeros are well placed.
Beth Farquharson has moved off the bottom while Alastair Noble and This Time? have also risen from the depths. At the foot of the table now is MacScot despite making a £325 gain this week.
