The FTSE 100, the UK’s main stock market index, has ridden a rocky road over the past five years. In mid-June 2016, prior to the UK’s Brexit referendum, the blue-chip index hovered around 6,000 points. In both January and May 2018, it surged above 7,775 points, hitting an all-time closing high of 7,877.45 on 22 May 2018. So far, so good.
The FTSE 100 crashes 35%
The index then drifted up and down until 17 January 2020, when it closed at nearly 7,675 points. But then catastrophe arrived as the Covid-19 virus spread. As global infections rose, the Footsie crashed spectacularly, plunging to close at 4,993.89 on ‘Meltdown Monday’ (23 March 2020). The index lost over 2,680 points in two months, collapsing more than a third (34.9%). However, in the subsequent 16 months, the index recovered much of its losses and currently trades around 7,139.55 points. That’s a capital gain of almost a fifth (18.6%) over the past half-decade.
These are the Footsie’s top five shares since 2016
As an index, the FTSE 100 tells you nothing about the performance of its individual constituents. As you’d expect, some Footsie shares have done extremely well, whereas others have performed terribly since mid-2016. For the record, these five shares are the top performers in the FTSE 100 over the five years to today:
| Ticker | Company | 1W | 1M | 3M | 6M | 1Y | 2Y | 3Y | 5Y |
| OCDO | Ocado Group | 3.9 | -1.5 | -10.0 | -12.0 | -8.7 | 63.0 | 90.0 | 634.9 |
| AHT | Ashtead Group | -2.6 | 7.1 | 20.6 | 55.0 | 102.1 | 159.9 | 113.4 | 416.9 |
| EVR | Evraz | -3.4 | -8.7 | 8.4 | 38.2 | 105.3 | -4.0 | 24.8 | 372.1 |
| SMT | Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust | 1.6 | 13.1 | 5.1 | 8.9 | 64.5 | 135.4 | 132.5 | 371.2 |
| AAL | Anglo American | -3.2 | -8.7 | 3.7 | 23.9 | 65.9 | 54.2 | 67.6 | 365.4 |
As you can see, the #1 performer in the FTSE 100 over the past five years is online supermarket Ocado. Its shares have skyrocketed by nearly 635%, turning £1,000 into £7,349 since mid-2016. That is a fantastic return, easily eclipsing the 18.6% rise in the wider index. But it’s possible that Ocado stock has gone too far too fast and is now over-cooked. Hence, I’m not a fan of this superstar growth stock today, so I don’t own this share.
Four five-star FTSE 100 stocks
The second-best performer is Ashtead Group, which rents out industrial equipment and has had a cracking five years. Its share price is up over seven of the eight time periods shown, only to dip 2.6% this week. This consistent winner releases its latest quarterly results next Tuesday, 15 June. I’d like to see these before forming an opinion on the merits of this five-star FTSE 100 share. I don’t own this stock today.
The third winner is Evraz, a FTSE 100 steelmaker and miner mainly operating in Russia, Ukraine, and North America. Its biggest shareholder is Roman Abramovich, owner of Premier League football team Chelsea. I like the look of this £9.1bn firm, not least for its 5.7% dividend yield, but have not yet pressed the buy button so far.
Number four is SMT, a FTSE 100 investment trust with heavy exposure to US and Chinese tech stocks. I regard SMT as a bubble stock built on bubble stocks. Its shares have fallen from a peak of 1,415p four months ago to 1,241p today. As a value investor seeking high dividends, SMT just isn’t for me.
Finally, in fifth place is Anglo American, which mines platinum, copper, nickel, iron ore, coal, and diamonds. Even though this stock is up 78% in the past 12 months, I have high hopes for global miners in any sustained post-Covid-19 boom. Hence, though I’d don’t own AAL, I would be a buyer at the current share price of 3,151p.