The winners and losers of the FTSE 100’s record year
In what has been a record year for the FTSE 100, a number of London’s blue-chips missed out on the rally and were left in the dark.
The FTSE 100 is poised to close 2025 just shy of the 10,000 mark after rising 20 per cent over the course of the year, led by strong performances across the financial and mining sectors.
“So much for the UK being the home for old economy companies – the FTSE 100 has had precisely the ingredients desired by investors in a year full of political, trade and market uncertainty,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
Over the course of a blistering calendar year – its best since recovering from the 2008 financial crisis – the UK’s blue-chip index beat the tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500, as well as indices in Amsterdam and Paris.
Of the world’s major bourses, only Germany’s Dax narrowly outperformed the Footsie over 2025, rising 22.3 per cent.
The market achieved this astonishing return despite continued selling by UK investors.
Data compiled by Calastone showed UK-focused funds haemorrhaged almost £847m in November amid a record £10bn six-month outflow in global funds.
“There may therefore be a lot of people kicking themselves that they’d taken money out of the UK market,” Coatsworth said.
Here’s a glance at the biggest winners – and those who missed out on the market magic – in 2025.
Fresnillo strikes gold as miners surge
The FTSE 350 mining index has soared by over 222 per cent in 2025, driven by surging precious metals prices amid geopolitical instability.
Gold crossed the $4,000 mark for the first time this year as central banks across the globe cut interest rates, and conflict in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia heightened investor appetite for the safe haven metal.
Fresnillo – which topped the index’s fallers on Wednesday morning at 2.5 per cent – enjoyed the largest year-long rally at a whopping 412 per cent.
The firm, which primarily operates in Mexico exploring, developing, and producing silver and gold, started the year with a stock price of 649.50p and ended at 3,300p.
Meanwhile, its peer Endeavour Mining rose nearly 160 per cent to 3,854.00p whilst FTSE 250 miner Hochschild climbed 130 per cent to near 511p.
Investors bank on Lloyds
Lloyds Banking Group has been one of the FTSE 100’s standout performers in a landmark year for the index’s financial giants.
The bank has risen just shy of 80 per cent to 98.39p, and analysts expect more gains in the year ahead, with the bank expected to return £17bn to shareholders by 2027.
“Admittedly, most of the UK-listed banks had a spectacular year on the stock market, but it was Lloyds who led the pack in 2025,” Coatsworth said.
The FTSE 350 bank index is up 60 per cent and has outperformed the wider blue-chip index as well as tech rivals overseas.
WPP demoted after year of woes
On the flip side, advertising giant WPP has suffered a significant downturn after being forced to slash its outlook amid rising competition.
The firm’s stock fell by nearly 60 per cent in 2025 and was demoted from the FTSE 100 in December’s reshuffle.
“The media group made its name coming up with bright ideas for clients but in 2025 it couldn’t find the inspiration to put itself back on track,” Coatsworth said.
“WPP has served up a multitude of profit warnings as clients pull back on spending and it lost major media accounts.”
The firm named Microsoft executive Cindy Rose as its new chief executive in July, replacing Mark Read, who stepped down after seven years at the helm and more than three decades at the company.
LSEG caught in ‘ironic’ crunch
Coatsworth said it is “somewhat ironic” that the country’s leading stock exchange operator was one of the FTSE 100’s worst performers in a “fantastic year” for UK shares.
Despite a minor spurt in December, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has tumbled 22 per cent over the last 12 months.
The group, which has a market cap of near £45bn and, despite its name, generates the vast majority of its earnings as a data and analytics provider, has suffered from rising competition from artificial intelligence and fallen behind major rivals like Bloomberg and S&P.
“It’s easy to see why investors are losing interest in the stock,” Coatsworth said.
LSEG has sought to tempt investors through its re-modelling as a “data-driven business” but Coatsworth added it appeared the market “remains sceptical”.
Beyond the blue-chips
Outside the London market’s giants, the mid-cap FTSE 250 rose eight per cent.
This was led by a 148 per cent surge in Goodwin, which capitalised on a defence stock rally amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Close Brothers jumped more than 100 per cent as the bank’s stock price began to shrug off the motor finance saga.
But by and large, gains were weighed down by Britain’s stuttering economy, to which FTSE 250 companies tend to have greater exposure than the larger constituents of London’s blue-chip index.
The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) – London’s junior stock market – rose nearly five per cent this year.