Whichever index you look at, 2013 has really been a stunning year with the FTSE100 up 14.4% but the technology indices reporting many times that growth. NASDAQ was 38.2%. The UK FTSE SCS Index was up 25% and the FTSE Telecomm Index up a quite staggering 55% with its two biggest constituents BT up 64% and Vodafone up 53% in 2013.
After flat-lining for a number of months, all the Indices put on an end-of-year spurt. Indeed the UK FTSE SCS Index was up 5.2% in Dec 13.
It is really very heartening to be able to report that the Top Three share price rises for 2013 were all UK SCS stocks quoted on the LSE. Blur (up 634% - despite Mr Miller’s scepticism Blur and the 20% question), Blinkx (up 215% - interestingly showing that HP has as much difficulty knowing when to sell as when to buy. HP sold its considerable Blinkx stake at 120p in June. Blinkx ended 2013 on 205p) and WanDisco (up 180% - See our Sept 13 post Game changing period at WanDisco). There are many pundits who forecast 2014 as ‘The year of the UK SME Stock’. Who are we to disagree?
On the global front, the Top Three share price rises for 2013 were iGate was up 154% (see our Oct 13 post iGate accelerates and others in the archive) , Nokia recovered 105% as a result of that Microsoft deal (see our Sept 13 post Microsoft buys Nokia mobile) , FaceBook was up 105% as it really showed the others how to monitise mobile ads. (See our Oct 13 post Facebook exceeds all expectations)
At the other end of the scale, the Top Three UK share price falls (excluding penny stocks) were IDOX (down 40% - See IDOX takes big H1 profits hit), Sopheon (down 40% - See Flat second half for Sopheon) and Anite (down 30% - See our Dec 13 post Anite feels market pressure in H1)
The only global SITS company we follow to record any share price decline in 2013 was IBM (down 2%). For the reasons, read our Oct 13 post 6th quarter of revenue declines for IBM.
2014? Well, if you believe the pundits shares are in for another positive performance. I can’t believe it can top 2013 though.