Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap. It’s been another volatile week as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and the global response) continues. As a reminder, these summaries are an extension of something we do in staff meetings of the Stockopedia Investment Club. They’re all about picking out ideas, themes and trends as we all try to plot a course through the market.
Index changes
This Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | |
FTSE 100 | +3.1% | -6.4% | +6.5% |
FTSE AIM All Share | +3.5% | -8.5% | -17.1% |
S&P 500 | +1.4% | -3.6% | +8.1% |
FTSEuroFirst 300 (ex-UK) | +3.5% | -9.0% | -0.6% |
S&P/ASX All Ordinaries | -0.2% | -2.3% | +5.6% |
Source: Stockopedia, London Stock Exchange
Equity moves
Most main markets have hit the end of this week in positive territory. But the volatility that’s been shaking confidence over the past couple of weeks is still very much there. Against a backdrop of incredible geopolitical shifts, oil, mining and defence related stocks have seen some of the strongest gains. By contrast, small-cap growth is still well out of favour.
Here’s a quick look at a list of UK FTSE 350 stocks currently trading at touching distance of their 52 week high prices. There aren’t many but the trend is definitely towards energy/utilities. These are often touted as defensive areas that, whilst sometimes hard to get excited about, ought to play a part in a well diversified all-weather portfolio. Right now, they're showing why that is…
Name | Mkt Cap m GBP | Price vs 52w High % | Rel Strength % 1y | Rel Strength % 6m | Stock Rank™ | Sector |
65,642.3 | -0.150 | +72.2 | +52.7 | 95 | ||
41,311.6 | -1.22 | +30.8 | +24.8 | 52 | ||
2,876.4 | -1.66 | +87.9 | +79.9 | 66 | ||
17,821.3 | -2.28 | +19.1 | +5.66 | 91 | ||
420.1 | -2.34 | +14.8 | +13.1 | 87 | ||
142,842.7 | -3.19 | +24.5 | +16.2 | 68 | ||
1,483.9 | -3.68 | +56.4 | +2.46 | 57 | ||
497.3 | -4.03 | +9.45 | +53.8 | 77 | ||
23,082.2 | -4.20 | +42.5 | +36.5 | 94 | ||
7,208.4 | -4.26 | +23.5 | +4.85 | 29 | ||
4,503.0 | -4.30 | +43.0 | +58.8 | 97 |
Value and inflation
US inflation has risen to 7.9% from 7.5% and we’ll hear about the UK figures later this month. Inflation has been an increasingly noisy theme this year. Last week I mentioned how the war in Ukraine may well mean that inflation stays higher for longer. Given that Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe, and Russia is a major supplier of a whole range of metals and other commodities, supply constraints mean it’s almost inevitable that prices will soar in places.
In one example, the price of nickel this week rose so sharply that the London Metal Exchange controversially suspended trading in it (this chart is from Tuesday),
Source: Trading Economics
Elsewhere, oil hit a high of $130 / barrel and gold is now close to $2,000 /…
