Cover story
4 / 5
With the FTSE 100 back below its 1999 peak , Anthony Luzio finds out what it needs to do to follow in the footsteps of the soaring US market
My perfect cousin
Considering 2020 plunged the global
economy into the worst recession since the Second World War , most investors did surprisingly well : the 12.32 per cent return from the MSCI World index has been beaten by just three calendar years in the past decade . Yet this wasn ’ t the case for UK investors who maintained a bias to their home market , with the FTSE 100 down 11.55 per cent . Of course , markets don ’ t move in a straight line and in the context of the economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus , this was far from a disaster . What may be more concerning for those with a long-term mindset is the 6,461 level at which the FTSE 100 finished 2020 is still below the 6,930 level it recorded on 31 December 1999 , meaning that over the past 21 years , the index of the UK ’ s biggest companies has gone backwards . Paul Marriage , manager of the TM Tellworth UK Smaller Companies fund , points out this doesn ’ t
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