Top risers and fallers of 2024: Which UK shares reached the celebs, or tumbled into the doldrums?

London’s FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices have risen by less than five per cent over the past year – underperforming the top savings accounts currently available.

They were also soundly beaten by the S&P 500, which has risen some 25 per cent over the same period to late December. 

The outlook doesn’t look wholly positive for the UK market either, though there could be some upside from attractive (meaning cheap) valuations for FTSE constituents.

Of course, there have been London-listed companies that still delivered strong performances.

Within the FTSE 350 index, the biggest riser by far is Metro Bank, which has gained 170 per cent in the past year. 

The bank saw its shares surge on the back of upgraded guidance in the summer as well as forecasting a return to profitability in the fourth quarter of the year.

Similarly, fellow FTSE 250 financial services firm CMC Markets has gained more than 150 per cent over the past year. This comes despite the firm experiencing a recent downturn, with shares falling 13 per cent after it refrained from upgrading its guidance in November.

Michael Field, equity market strategist at Morningstar, said: ‘On the winners list we have names like Metro bank, Standard Chartered, and insurer Beazley. While on the fallers list we have Schroders and Prudential.

‘Here falling inflation and interest rates can take some of the credit or the blame, highlighting which business models work well under pressure.’

While the FTSE 100’s Beazley and Standard Chartered have both seen gains, rising 57.51 per cent and 49.33 per cent respectively, banks Barclays and NatWest had an even more successful year, gaining 74.57 per cent and 88.24 per cent.

On the flipside, however, insurance company Prudential lost 27.3 per cent, while Schroders slipped 22.38 per cent.

Banking group Close Brothers fell almost 72 per cent, making it the worst performer in the FTSE 250 over the period.

The rest of the picture is also one of relative confusion. Risers and fallers are not easily categorised by sector, with some firms seeing huge gains over 2024 while their industry competitors suffered.

Within the industrial sector, for example, aerospace firm Rolls-Royce jumped almost 92 per cent in 2024, but fellow industrial firm Spirax, which produces industrial machinery, tumbled 32.3 per cent.

Field told This is Money: ‘What’s most interesting about the entire list of risers and fallers is that it’s not hugely sector led, as we would normally expect. 

‘There are of course some themes, like basic materials coming under pressure during 2024, stocks like Glencore, Croda etc, but for the most part a lot of the risers and fallers operate within the same sectors.’

Glencore lost 23.1 per cent over the year, while Croda fell 31.62 per cent.

Even then, gold producer Hochschild Mining was a basic materials winner, adding 98.88 per cent in 2024.

On top of this, Field added: ‘Even airlines have not moved in the same direction.’

British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines was the best performing FTSE 100 constituent, rising 98.92 per cent in 2024.

Meanwhile, Wizz Air, a FTSE 250 member, has fallen 34.74 per cent over the same timeframe, with the Budapest-based firm plagued by aircraft groundings as a result of engine quality issues as well as delivery delays from Airbus.

The consumer sector also saw a mixed bag of share price movements, Field said, with many firms suffering as a result of tighter consumer spending in recent years.

Field said: ‘On the winners list we have Currys, and the enigmatically named Imperial Brands, the former up more than 80 per cent over the course of the year, and the latter up more than 50 per cent.

‘But it certainly wasn’t the case that all consumer firms did well in 2024, with household names like JD Sports and PZ Cussons, owner of brands like St Tropez and Imperial Leather, performing terribly over the same period. 

‘In a time of tightened belts, consumers are being forced to be discerning about what they really want to spend their hard-earned cash on.’

While Currys rose some 84 per cent, and Imperial Brands 50.79 per cent, JD Sports and PZ Cussons fell 42.19 per cent and 45.43 per cent respectively.

In fact, alongside JD Sports, four other FTSE 100 consumer firms were among the worst performing in the index. Frasers fell 31.19 per cent and B&M 29.03 per cent, while Vistry and Entain fell 28.17 per cent and 27 per cent each.

‘The sands are shifting, creating a dichotomy among firms that are set up to take advantage of this, and those that are not,’ said Field.

‘With interest rates predicted to fall further in 2024 we expect pressures to ease on many parts of the economy, but this will take time, so expect more of the trends seen in 2024 as we enter a new year,’ Field said.