So far, the sharemarket has been a tough place to be in 2015. Volatility has been feature of the first week-and-a-half of the year as global events have shaped the direction of sharemarkets worldwide. This volatility can be easily demonstrated by looking at the top and bottom 10 stocks on the Australian sharemarket.
In order to provide a benchmark, the S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX: XJO) has returned 0.96% so far in 2015, while the broader ALL ORDINARIES (INDEXASX: XAO) has improved by 0.90% after a strong finish to last week.
Top 10 (mid and large-cap stocks)
- Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) up 12%
- Abacus Property Group (ASX: ABP) up 9%
- Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL) up 8%
- Aveo Group (ASX: AOG) up 7%
- Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) up 7%
- Westfield Corp (ASX: WFD) up 7%
- Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) up 6%
- Nufarm Limited (ASX: NUF) up 6%
- Incitec Pivot Limited (ASX: IPL) up 6%
- AIR N.Z. FPO NZ (ASX: AIZ) up 6%
Bottom 10
- Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX: LNG) down 14%
- Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) down 13%
- AGL Energy Ltd (ASX: AGL) down 8.5%
- Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia (ASX: GMA) down 8%
- WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED (ASX: WHC) down 8%
- Worleyparsons Limited (ASX: WOR) down 7%
- Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) down 7%
- Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) down 7%
- Ardent Leisure Group (ASX: AAD) down 6.5%
- Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) down 6%
Themes
It's quite obvious that the plunging oil price and rising gold price has impacted the share price of Newcrest and the LNG and oil producers in the bottom 10. Super Retail and Flight Centre had relatively poor 2014s, adversely impacted by the depressed consumer confidence and spending.
2015 Ideas
Investors with an iron stomach could look at investing in the oil and coal producers in the bottom 10, however a smarter idea might be to look for companies like Flight Centre that stand to benefit from lower fuel prices and improving consumer confidence.
