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Despite languishing in the relegation zone , many companies that have struggled in recent years managed to up their game in 2020
in search of services they feel the incumbents have failed to deliver . “ The last year has been a particularly tough one for Lloyds ,” adds Hunter , “ given the perception that it is a barometer of the UK economy . It has therefore had to carry an additional burden to the multibillion bad debt provisions that each of the banks has had to make .”
Not all bad news Despite languishing in the relegation zone , many companies that have struggled in recent years managed to up their game in 2020 . These include supermarkets J Sainsbury and Tesco which failed to deal with disruption from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl . However , they saw demand boom in the pandemic environment characterised by lockdown and social distancing . This has been boosted by a move into smaller convenience stores , placing them at the heart of local communities and not just outof-town sites . Morrisons , the third big name , hovers just outside this table .
Vodafone , too , has benefited from users ’ need to work remotely and stay in touch with family and friends they are unable to meet in person .
Rewarding confidence But of course , share price performance is only one part of the story . Dividend payments account for 84.22 per cent of the total return made by the FTSE 100 over the past 10 years , but while they have boosted the figures of all of the underperformers on our list , every one has cut payments to shareholders in recent years . Still , they were enough to push HSBC ’ s performance into the black , and make BP and Vodafone look like heroes among their peers on the list . This , says Hunter , highlights the importance of dividends when calculating returns , but they must be considered in context . Rolls-Royce , a perennial blue chip , delivered positive share price performance up to 2020 . However , the pandemic hit the global transport industry hard , causing the company ’ s share price to halve last year . BP has suffered from the depressed oil price , but now faces an additional
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