Glencore digs out best FTSE 100 showing a year after Brexit vote
WINNERS AND LOSERS (TOTAL RETURNS)
IVAN Glasenberg’s Glencore mining and trading giant has emerged as the FTSE 100’s best-performing stock a year on from the Brexit vote, figures showed today.
Total returns from Glasenberg’s empire have more than doubled in the past 12 months as the firm and its rivals rode the wave of a bounceback in the price of metals such as iron ore, which also helped copper miner Antofagasta into the top three.
The commodities bounce comes on top of the impact of the pound’s fall since the Brexit vote, giving a tailwind to the blue-chip index’s more internationally focused members.
IG Group’s Chris Beauchamp said: “The ongoing rebound in commodity prices helped to make miners one of the best performers, with the weakness of sterling amplifying the returns; overall, the FTSE 100’s performance saw a good turn from the big international firms, who almost universally enjoyed the benefit of a weaker pound.”
The same commodities recovery helped Ukrainian-focused iron ore miner Ferrexpo and Kazahkstan copper miner KAZ lead the returns for the FTSE 250.
Few of the worst performers in the FTSE 100 could lay Brexit at their door. BT hit investors with a shock profit warning after uncovering fraud in its Italian business, while education publisher Pearson has also suffered on textbooks markets drying up in the US. But fashion retailer Next, in the front line of the consumer spending squeeze, is also one of the Footsie’s worst post-Brexit performers. @russ_lynch