British American Tobacco (ticker BATS) have recovered from their February dip and are back into positive growth for the year. 5.8% growth in the week makes them the highest, but only pushed them up one position in the table bring year to date to 3.3%.
The February dip looks to be the markets reaction to their end of year results and 2021 forecasts, while their March recovery has been helped by their investment ‘beyond nicotine’ into a Canadian R&D firm. Full stories
Royal Dutch Shell B (RDSb) only had to beat a 5.5% loss for the week to beat their A team yet they finished at a 6.1% loss (so they won’t be replacing the A team anytime soon).
The loss across both shells could be due to the link with oil price which took a dip for the first time in two months signalling a potential end to the rally.
Anglo American (AAL) however were the biggest loser for the week with a 6.4% loss on their stock price. The FTSE100 as a whole had a bad day today, and with the drop in oil and metal prices, Royal Dutch and Anglo American were hit the hardest. Full story
Meanwhile London Stock Exchange continued to shoot the wrong way and are now down a fifth year to date. (see WOTD – Week 10)
What can SMEs take from this weeks movements?
- Don’t expect to be positive every week. Ride the rollercoaster and play the long game.
- As a start up, you may not be mining for metals or oil, but you should be aware of how pricing affects your business. Whether that is the market value of your product or services or the prices of the goods and services you buy in.
- Again, it may not be oil and metal, but if you are a ‘stock-heavy’ company, calculate the risk of falling prices against the value of your balance sheet.
League Table
Now to the all important league table.
No movers from the top half of the table to the bottom even though 8 of the top 10 had negative weeks, and 8 of the bottom 10 had positive weeks!
| Pos | Company | Week | YTD Change |
| 1 | Glencore | -2.8% | 21.1% |
| 2 | BP | -4.8% | 20.9% |
| 3 | Anglo American | -6.4% | 16.5% |
| 4 | Royal Dutch Shell A | -5.5% | 15.3% |
| 5 | HSBC | 0.8% | 14.0% |
| 6 | Prudential | -0.4% | 13.9% |
| 7 | Royal Dutch Shell B | -6.1% | 13.2% |
| 8 | Lloyds Banking | -0.5% | 12.5% |
| 9 | Vodafone Group PLC | 1.1% | 11.0% |
| 10 | BHP Group | -5.2% | 7.4% |
| 11 | Diageo | 0.3% | 4.5% |
| 12 | British American Tobacco | 5.8% | 3.3% |
| 13 | Rio Tinto PLC | -4.8% | 0.0% |
| 14 | Relx | 3.8% | -0.3% |
| 15 | National Grid | 0.2% | -2.9% |
| 16 | AstraZeneca | 2.2% | -3.0% |
| 17 | GlaxoSmithKline | 3.1% | -3.3% |
| 18 | Reckitt Benckiser | 2.6% | -3.3% |
| 19 | Unilever | 0.7% | -9.5% |
| 20 | London Stock Exchange | -5.8% | -20.5% |
Who is going to lose it all?
Who is going to recover?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
Until next week.
Contributor
