FTSE 100 Competition Results week 12
Final week leaves Zona top of the leaderboard
In the final week of our competition
FTSE 100 opened the week at 7,914.13
FTSE 100 closed the week at 7,870.57
53 of the top 100 made gains this week.
It was a week that was termed lacklustre and cautious. Housebuilders and banking firms had positive sessions. The FTSE 100 has lagged largely due to under-performance in energy, and weakness in BP and Shell. London’s top equity market returned to gains on Friday after four days of decline.
Whitbread shot to the top of the FTSE table as it revealed full-year figures ahead of expectations. The Premier Inn owner said profit had hit £375 million in the year to the start of March. It settled down after midweek excitement to finish the week up 3.9%.
Housebuilder Persimmon was among the week’s top performers despite a slump in new house completions. Investor sentiment improved as the group highlighted some signs of encouragement, with visitor numbers up recently and cancellation levels starting to normalise despite increases to interest rates. They gained 4.7% on the week while rivals Taylor Wimpey (+4.8%) and Barratt (+3.8%) also gained ground.
Barclays shares (+4.3%) rose strongly after the banking firm reported a record-high profit for the first three months of the year as higher interest rates bolstered its UK income.
Positive earnings updates for Prudential (+5.2%) and Pearson (+4.1%) helped guide the FTSE 100 to close at 7,870.57.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were:
Airtel Africa plc +10.6%
Vodafone Group plc +5.8%
Prudential plc +5.2%
Abrdn plc +5.1%
Land Securities Group +5.0%
Taylor Wimpey plc +4.8%
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were:
Legal and General Group -7.9%
Fresnillo -6.5%
Antofagasta -4.5%
Glencore plc -4.5%
Associated British Food -4.4%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering -4.3%
In our competition John Derby gained the most, 11 places to 23rd. RoyLodge lost 11 places to rest at 40th.
Maureen W moved up to second but Zona Paton saw out the 12 weeks still holding on to first place. Well done Zona the prize, a £100 voucher is on its way.
Praise is due to fourth placed Robbeath who was the only entrant to remain in positive territory throughout. 22 out of our 51 entrants made gains over the 12 weeks. Unfortunately that means 29 made losses. Leading loser was Jennifer Grieve and despite Comrie Colliery sliding to second last, Jennifer was still £91 worse off and so collects the prize of a bottle of malt whisky.
Many thanks to all our entrants. I hope that you found the weekly goings on of the FTSE 100 of interest. Hopefully you will be keen to enter future competitions when they are announced.
