A surge in the oil price above $80 per barrel yesterday helped boost the FTSE 100 to a new record high, surpassing the 7,778.64-peak reached on 12 January 2018 to close at 7,787.97.
Higher oil prices are supportive to the FTSE due to the heavy weighting enjoyed by oil majors BP (BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB).
However, which stocks have helped the FTSE to reach this fresh high since the index bottomed out in late March (26 Mar). Below is a table with a list of the ten best performing FTSE 100 stocks from that date to yesterday’s close.
| Company | Performance (%) |
| Shire | 42 |
| Micro Focus | 41 |
| Sainsbury’s | 35 |
| BP | 26 |
| BHP Billiton | 25 |
| Royal Dutch Shell | 25 |
| Morrison (Wm) | 24 |
| Rio Tinto | 22 |
| Tesco | 22 |
| Rentokil Initial | 21 |
Source: SharePad, 18 May 2018
Several of these names, including Shire (SHP) and Sainsbury’s (SBRY) have been lifted by M&A but there are also a smattering of names from the resources sector, including BP and Shell, reflecting the recent strength in commodity prices.
Co-founder and head of corporate development at Seven Investment Management Justin Urquhart Stewart puts the recent advance in the FTSE 100 in some context. ‘As dizzying as the FTSE 100 might currently seem, it is only 12% above the high that we saw at the beginning of 2000.
‘I say “only”, because if you had reinvested dividends, you'd actually be 114% up between the start of 2000 and now.'
