Indices News

The FTSE 100 has staged a slow recovery in the past few months. The Footsie has risen by more than 45% from its lowest level in 2020. This year alone, it has risen by more than 10%. In all this, it has underperformed the leading global indices like the Nasdaq 100, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq 100. UK stocks have done relatively well because of the passing of the Brexit deal in December and the fact that the government has done a good job vaccinating its population. More than 70% of UK residents have been vaccinated. The stocks have also risen because of the overall optimism that consolidation will continue. Recently, several UK companies like Avast and Morrisons have been targeted. So, let us look at the best performing FTSE 100 stocks in the past 12 months. Royal Mail Royal Mail share price has staged a strong recovery in the past 12 months as demand for parcels increase. This performance has helped bring the company to the FTSE 100 index. Recent results have showed that the company’s revenue rose in 2020, pushing the firm to increase its dividend. You can read my recent article on the Royal Mail shares here. Ashtead Group Ashtead is a leading company that provides equipment rental services in the UK, Canada, and the United States. Its brand is known as Sunbelt Rentals. It has 861 stores in the US, 77 in Canada, and 188 in the UK. The Ashtead share price has done well because of the strong demand of its products as the economy recovers. This was evidenced in the past results. The firm’s fourth-quarter revenue increased by 23% to 1.27 billion pounds. As a result, its EBITDA rose by 30% to 552 million pounds while the operating revenue rose to more than 1.13 billion pounds. Ashtead is the second-best performing FTSE 100 stock in the past 12 months. Its stock has risen by 109% in the past year and by 48% in the past 6 months. The strong performance could continue as the price of equipment rise. Entain Entain is a leading sports betting and gambling company that owns brands like bwin, Coral, Ladbrokes, SportingBet, betboo, Party Casino, and Gala Bingo. The firm made headlines when it turned down a $11 billion acquisition from MGM. The firm said that the offer significantly undervalued the combined company. At the same time, the company has been pursuing Tabcorp, an Australian gambling company. Entain is the third-best performing FTSE 100 shares in the past year has risen by 100%. It has risen by 36% in the past 6 months. This is because of the fact that some analysts believe that a new offer will come. Also, with sports returning, there are hopes that its business will continue doing well. Kingfisher The Kingfisher share price has risen by more than 58% in the past 12 months and by 32% in the past 6 months. This makes it the third-best performer in the FTSE 100 in the past year. The firm owns brands like B&Q, Castorama, and Screwfix. The Kingfisher stock has risen because of the stellar performance of its business as demand for home improvement products rose. We also saw this trend in the US where companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s reported excellent earnings. In the most recent earnings release, the company said that its e-commerce revenue rose by 188% in the second quarter. It also upgraded its H1 pre-tax profit to be between 645 million to 660 million. The firm said: ““With the strong performance in the quarter to date, we now anticipate first half sales and adjusted pre-tax profit to be ahead of our previous expectations. We continue to be encouraged by the supportive long-term trends for our industry and are confident of continued outperformance of our wider markets.” The other top performers in the FTSE 100 in the past 12 months are ITV, Glencore, NatWest, and BT Group. On the other hand, the top laggards are Just Eat Takeaway, Fresnillo, Reckitt Benckiser, Ocado, and GlaxoSmithKline. These shares have all dropped by more than 15% in the past 12 months. Follow Crispus on Twitter.