Top 5 UK Stocks to trade [date_month_year]

Top 5 UK Stocks to trade in 2021!

The FTSE 100 has made significant gains and recovered fairly well since the Coronavirus pandemic began.

500 points have been added to the ‘UK Blue-Chip’’ index already in the last 7 months alone! Still around another 500 points to get back to pre-corona highs.

In this article we are going to be taking a look at the Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021 based on yearly performance of the FTSE 100 constituents.

Let’s start by briefly touching on what the FTSE 100 actually is and what it consists of:

Top 5 UK Stocks to Trade in 2021: FTSE100

The FTSE 100 or the Financial Time Stock Exchange 100 is a stock market index that contains 100 of the largest companies in the United Kingdom by Market Capitalisation.

Many of the stocks in this list you will have heard of and probably use on a daily basis!

The FTSE 100 index was founded back in 1984 and the exchange its listed on is the London Stock Exchange. The market cap of the FTSE 100 is sitting at around the 1.8 trillion-pound mark!

That will do for a bit of info around the Footsie – Now let’s dive into the section of the article you came to see – The Top 5 UK stocks to Trade in 2021!

1 – Royal Mail – Ticker: RMG

Remember when I said earlier that you will have heard of the companies in the FTSE 100 and you may use some of them on a daily basis? Well, here’s a pretty good example of that!

Coming in at Number 1 on our list of Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021 is the Royal Mail Group. Which is, of course, Britain’s own Postal and Courier service.

The Royal Mail was actually founded way way back in the 1500’s by none other than King Henry VIII! His 6 wives not being his only claim to fame!

Interestingly, The Royal Mail is a fairly new FTSE100 stock. It was actually a public service/government department pre-2013.

However, in 2013, Royal Mail was made public and shares were offered to the public – Otherwise known as an IPO (Initial Public Offering)

This IPO was hugely successful, with 7 times the number of shares made available, applied for! Around 50% of Royal Mail stock was subsequently sold to investors whilst 10% went to staff members and the Government retained around 30%.

A couple of years later, the Government would go on to sell their remaining stake! And it was said that after all was done, the UK Government had raised almost 3.5 billion pounds from the privatisation of Royal Mail!

There’s a bit of history/context for you! So, why have Royal Mail made our list and also gained the top spot?

Simply – They are the biggest gainer in % terms of any FTSE 100 listed company in the last year. They are currently trading in the region of 230% higher than the same point in time a year ago! Huge growth!

2 – Ashtead Group – Ticker:AHT

Number 2 in our list of Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021 is the Ashtead Group.

Ashtead Group are an international equipment rental company based out of London, England. They mainly operate in the UK, USA and Canada and they have National networks in each.

They were founded back in 1947 in Surrey and as previously mentioned are headquartered in London. They have over 13,000 staff members and were first listed on London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 1986.

Although they are a UK based Plant Hire company, the majority of their revenue is generated from the States under their subsidiary, named SunBelt Rentals. This proportion of revenue is around 85% of total revenue!

Using a quote from their Website, Ashtead Groups equipment can be hired to;

‘Lift, Power, Generate, Move, Dig, Compact, Drill, Support, Scrub, Pump, Direct, Heat and Ventilate’

Showing the vast array of equipment that can be hired through the firm. The different sectors they cater for can be summarised as follows:

Accommodation
Fencing
Bridges
Climate Control
Hoists
Industrial
Lifting
Lighting
Plant Hire
Power Generation
Rail
Safety
Tools
Utilities

And the list goes on!

So how have Ashtead Group made number 2 in our list of Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021?

At 110% % share price increase since June 2020 – AHT are only second to the Royal Mail group in this performance category.

But not only that, AHT also make the top 5 performers in the FTSE 100 using 5 years worth of data. A staggering 430% gain from the same point in time, 5 years ago!

Again, that is enormous growth and anyone with AHT in their portfolio will be very happy investors!

3 – Evraz Plc – Ticker:EVR

Number 3 in our list of Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021 is Evraz!

Almost matching Ashtead Groups % gain performance to the number – at around 110% yearly gain, Evraz easily makes our list.

Probably not a company that you’ve ever heard of – Unless, of course, you are in the Mining Game! Global Steel and Mining that is!

Headquartered in London and Founded in 1992, Evraz now have almost 70,000 employees working for them!

They mine and deal in the following products:

Coal
Steel
Iron Ore
Vanadium

And whilst you may not have heard of Evraz… You may have heard of their owner… Roman Abramovich! And yes, this is the same Roman Abramovich that owns recent Champions League winners – Chelsea Football Club!

And similar to 2^nd Place Ashtead Group, Evraz have also experienced some enormous growth using the same data over a 5 year period. In fact, the performance actually pips AHT – With Evraz seeing almost a 500% gain in the past 5 years!!!

This is actually the 2^nd largest % gain in the entire FTSE 100 over the past 5 years (The largest % gain in the last 5 years is actually held by Ocado:OCDO – But because of their poor performance using the past years data – They do not make our list!)

4 – Entain Plc – Ticker:ENT

The penultimate spot on our list of Top 5 UK Stocks to trade in 2021 is perfect for all readers who enjoy a flutter at the bookies – Entain plc!

Just making its way through the 100% gain barrier in this past year is International sports betting and gambling firm – Entain!

Entain were previously known as GVC Holdings and they own some of the largest and well-known gambling sites and brands in the UK today. Such as:

SportingBet
Coral
Bwin
Ladbrokes
PartyPoker
foxyBingo
foxyGames

Founded in 2004 (as GVC holdings) and headquartered in the Isle of Man…. Entain have gone from strength to strength in terms of revenue and also in the acquisitions they have made on their journey.

Entain also have a joint venture with US giants MGM (who actually tried to buy them out for 11 billion this year!)

And, they have just signed sponsorships deals with Formula one racing team – Mclaren, under their PartyPoker and PartyCasino brand names.

Using the 5 year data-set, Entains performance isn’t quite as impressive as the others on this list (coming in at around 180%) but its still worth noting and its clear to see that most of their gains have come this year.

5 – Glencore Plc – Ticker:GLEN

And finally, taking 5^th spot in our list of Top 5 UK stocks to trade in 2021 is a stock that I personally traded almost every day when I was an equity execution dealer – Glencore.

Glencore is another Mining company that also trade commodities. They also have a gas and oil arm that is headquartered in London. Glencores yearly performance is fast approaching the 100% mark, which is why it has made our list!

Back in 2013, Glencore and another mining company called Xstrata (another stock I used to trade daily) merged to form the beast of a company that we see today.

Glencore now have over 135,000 employees, over 150 assets and operate in over 35 different countries.

They produce and put to market over 60 different commodities and class themselves as one of the worlds largest globally diversified natural resource companies!

Some of the products they deal in are:

Nickel
Zinc
Copper
Cobalt
Aluminium
Gold
Silver
Iron Ore
Coal
Oil
Natural Gas

Glencore’s 5 year performance isn’t too bad either sitting at around the 150% gain mark. Admittedly not as high as some of the other stocks listed here, but remember this list is based off of a dataset of 1 year percentage gains!

Thanks for taking the time out to read our list of Top UK stocks to trade in 2021! We hope we have given you some good insight into some of the top performing Blue Chip Stocks listed in the UK.

If you are ready to start trading, please click here to open your account today!

Good Luck and Happy Trading!