Yesterday we published the first in our two part review of 2023. The first instalment, which you can read here, focused on the big events of the year. The stories that captured our collective attention and sent stocks (and sometimes whole sectors and markets) into a spin.
Today we turn our attention to the data. The cold, hard facts that tell their own stories of 2023.
Overall, there isn’t much to celebrate in domestic markets as the year closes. The FTSE All Share has bumped up and down all year, and although it has started to climb from its lows of late October, it looks like it will only end the year about 2% up. By contrast, the S&P 500 will close the year up more than a fifth - a late surge putting it near the highs of 2021. And Europe’s main indices have been somewhere in-between - lurching from a strong start, to a mixed year and ending with a rally.
On the other end of the spectrum there is Aim, which also hit its nadir on 27 October, but still ends the year down roughly a tenth. The largest companies on Aim have fared slightly better, with the AIM 100 down 8%. But less than half of those 100 stocks finished the year in the black. That’s a statistic that’s reflected throughout the UK. Only 40% of companies in the FTSE or Aim were ‘winners’ in 2023.
Stocks on top
Still, that’s not to say opportunities were completely absent. In total, 643 stocks in the UK ended the year up and 38 of those saw their share prices more than double, including three FTSE 100 stocks.
Leading the pack was Rolls Royce (up 214%) - a recovery play with a nod to nuclear energy revolution, which have together provided strong impetus for the shares in 2023. The company’s new chief executive took the helm in January and has led the way to a significant recovery in cash flows and margins, while widening defence budgets and growth in civil air travel have bolstered the end markets.
And the nuclear story is also an interesting one. While energy hasn’t been such a hot sector in 2023 compared to the previous year, there has been enough global unrest to prove that the world is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels and renewables technology just can’t deliver the energy required to…
