FTSE 100 posts 5.7% gain for 2024 in “a year of resilience”
Britain’s FTSE 100 share index has closed for the year, posting a 5.7% gain for 2024.
The index of blue-ship shares listed in London has gained 440 points this year.
As the market closed early for New Year, the FTSE100 ended the day up 52 points or 0.65% today at 8173 points, having begun 2024 at 7733 points.
This is the fourth year in a row that the FTSE100 has risen, after it plunged in 2020 in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it’s a smaller gain than Germany’s DAX and Japan’s Nikkei, which both gained around 19% this year, while in New York the S&P 500 has risen by over 23%.
Earlier this year the FTSE 100 hit a record high of 8474 points, in May, before slipping in the second half of the year.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says.
“The FTSE 100 wrapped up 2024 on a high note, shaking off a slow start to the session to finish the year in positive territory. After an impressive climb early on, the index hit an all-time high in May but couldn’t quite muster the momentum to break out of a rangebound pattern in the months that followed.
Meanwhile, it played second fiddle to the tech-fuelled US markets, where AI excitement sent the S&P 500 soaring. Back home, UK investors navigated a year of twists and turns, with two interest rate cuts offering relief while a tax-hiking budget put pressure on some domestic companies.
It was a year of resilience rather than runaway success for the UK’s blue-chip benchmark.
Key events
Wall Street closes lower after bumper year
A late PS: The three major U.S. stock indices closed in negative territory tonight.
The S&P 500 lost 25 points, or 0.4%, to end at 5,881 points, while the NasdaqComposite fell by 0.90%.
For 2024, the Nasdaq surged nearly 30%, while the bellwether S&P 500 notched more than a 23% gain, marking the index’s best two-year run since 1997-1998.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped slightly, to finish at 42,544.22 points, meaning it gained almost 13% during the year.
With a blockbuster 2024, the overall U.S. stock index wrapped up its best consecutive years since 1997 and 1998, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
But London stocks have lagged behind New York, where the S&P 500 index gained over 23% this year.
Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are set to end on New Year’s Day, ending Moscow’s long dominance of supply in the European gas market.
Russia’s oldest gas export route to Europe – a pipeline dating back to Soviet days – was set to shut at the end of 2024, as a five-year transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expires. Data from Ukraine’s gas transit operator showed on Tuesday that Russia had not requested any gas flows for January 1st.
China’s economy is on course to expand by 5% in 2025, according to its president, Xi Jinping, meeting official growth targets and rebutting concerns that Donald Trump’s incoming US administration will harm Beijing’s prospects in the new year.
A US government fund to compensate people swindled by Bernie Madoff is making its final round of payments, taking the total paid from the fund to the late fraudster’s victims to $4.3bn (£3.4bn).
The boss of Britain’s biggest building society has warned that working from home could harm women’s careers because they are less likely to come into the office than their male colleagues.
Passengers on the London to Glasgow main line face disruption to services in the coming days because of strikes by train managers at Avanti West Coast.
For those planning their finances next year…
There could be a flurry of takeover action in London next year too.
UK investment bank PeelHunt has predicted that 2025 will bring a major and sustained flow of UK takeovers.
Peel Hunt’s head of M&A advisory, MichaelNicholson, says:
“Bid defence manuals are no longer an item to be left on the shelf, ready to grab if needed. They ought to be front of mind for all UK boards.”
Nicholson estimates that a third of stocks on the alternative AIM market are at risk of a takeover approach as private equity “barbarians at the gate” prepare to strike in 2025.
With the London market now closed until 2nd January 2025, investors’ minds are turning to what might happen in the new year.
The brokerage firm AJ Bell has predicted shares will rally in London next year.
It has a target price of 9,000 points for the FTSE 100 by the end of 2025, arguing that “prevailing gloom” means UK equities look cheap on an earnings and yield basis.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould, explained:
“Total returns from the UK stock market in 2024 handily beat cash, bonds and inflation, but the poor comparisons with the USA remain the stick with which the FTSE 100 is constantly beaten.
Whether the NASDAQ and S&P 500 will finally run out of puff in 2025 remains a matter of debate, but value- and income-seeking contrarians could be forgiven for giving the UK a closer look, given consensus forecasts for earnings and dividend growth.
Wall Street opens higher on final trading day
Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters
The opening bell has rung on Wall Street for the final time in another blockbuster year for stocks.
The main indices in New York have risen in early trading, with the DowJonesindustrialaverage up 79 points or 0.2% at 42,653 points.
The broader S&P 500 index is up 0.1%, while the tech-focused NasdaqComposite nudged up by just 0.018%.
For the year, the Dow has gained 13% and the S&P 500 24%, while the Nasdaq is up around 30% thanks to hot tech stocks such as Nvidia (up 177% this year).
The top FTSE 100 risers this year were airline group IAG and engineering firm Rolls-Royce, which both gained over 90% during 2024.
They were followed by NatWest bank, whose shares rose by 82%, and packaging firm DS Smith which gained 77%.
FTSE 100 posts 5.7% gain for 2024 in “a year of resilience”
Britain’s FTSE 100 share index has closed for the year, posting a 5.7% gain for 2024.
The index of blue-ship shares listed in London has gained 440 points this year.
As the market closed early for New Year, the FTSE100 ended the day up 52 points or 0.65% today at 8173 points, having begun 2024 at 7733 points.
This is the fourth year in a row that the FTSE100 has risen, after it plunged in 2020 in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But it’s a smaller gain than Germany’s DAX and Japan’s Nikkei, which both gained around 19% this year, while in New York the S&P 500 has risen by over 23%.
Earlier this year the FTSE 100 hit a record high of 8474 points, in May, before slipping in the second half of the year.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says.
“The FTSE 100 wrapped up 2024 on a high note, shaking off a slow start to the session to finish the year in positive territory. After an impressive climb early on, the index hit an all-time high in May but couldn’t quite muster the momentum to break out of a rangebound pattern in the months that followed.
Meanwhile, it played second fiddle to the tech-fuelled US markets, where AI excitement sent the S&P 500 soaring. Back home, UK investors navigated a year of twists and turns, with two interest rate cuts offering relief while a tax-hiking budget put pressure on some domestic companies.
It was a year of resilience rather than runaway success for the UK’s blue-chip benchmark.
Santa has made a late appearance at the London stock exchange!
With less than an hour’s trading to go this year, the FTSE100 index is now rallying – it’s up 55 points or 0.7% at 8176.
Fashion retailer JDSports are the top riser today, up 2.8%.
That means the FTSE 100 has gained around 5.7% so far this year…..
2024 was a busy year for takeovers of UK companies.
Data from the London Stock Exchange Group shows that the amount of domestic merger and acquisitions (in which one UK company buys another) doubled year-on-year, while deals from overseas rose 21%.
This lifted the total M&A involving a UK target to $182.9bn (£148.8bn) so far this year. Fifty-one percent of UK target M&A involved an overseas acquiror, with the remaining 49% involving domestic buyers, LSEG reports.
During 2024 the UK was the third most targeted country for M&A globally this year, after the United States and China; deals involving UK targets accounting for 6% of the global M&A total, up from 4% last year.
LSEG adds:
Financials is the most targeted sector in the UK so far this year, accounting for 17% of overall UK target M&A activity, with multi-billion dollar bids for asset management firm Hargreaves Lansdown and Nationwide Building Society’s plan to buy Virgin Money.
The Ministry of Defence’s acquisition of military housing, LondonMetric Property’s merger with LXi REIT, and the Barratt/Redrow merger boosted the Real Estate sector to second place.
