SHARES in Scottish companies out-performed wider stock markets last year helped by the country’s strength in sectors such as life sciences and technology, an analysis has found.
Investment specialists at the Brewin Dolphin wealth management business found Scottish organisations on the AIM index saw their share price increase by an average of around 29 per cent in 2020. The wider index enjoyed an increase of around 21%.
READ MORE: Coronavirus crisis no bar to investment in Scottish firms say financiers
Firms with a full listing on the senior market saws their shares fall by around 10.5% on average. That compared favourably with a fall of 12.3% for the FTSE All Share index.
Brewin Dolphin noted that strong performers included Omega Diagnostics, the Alva-based life sciences company. Shares in the firm ended the year up nearly 350% as it re-positioned itself to provide Covid-19 testing.
Shares in Calnex, the telecoms testing equipment supplier, increased by 150% between the time of its flotation on the Aim market in October and the end of the year.
Brewin Dolphin found the FTSE-listed Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust finished the year up 110%. It said the fund had benefitted from the rising values of many of its technology holdings, including Tesla and Amazon.
Lockdowns imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus boosted demand for the services of many technology firms. However Scottish companies in sectors such as transport and banking were hit hard by the fallout from the crisis.
Stagecoach saw its value drop 54% during 2020, while John Menzies – the aviation services provider – and FirstGroup saw declines of 44% and 41% respectively, noted Brewin Dolphin.
NatWest and Virgin Money, which were formerly called RBS and Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group respectively, also saw their shares finish the year down around 30%.
READ MORE: Clydesdale Bank owner signals it may close more Scottish branches
Brewin Dolphin said all these firms saw their share prices climb sharply in the fourth quarter, amid hopes the coronavirus threat was easing.
Howevever, senior investment manager John Moore said, while there are reasons to be optimistic, many companies remain challenged. The introduction of further lockdown measures provided a reminder that there is still some way to go for many.
Bod Buckby, head of UK primary markets – North at London Stock Exchange Group, said: “Scotland is well recognised as a home for innovative life sciences and technology companies, and this is reflected in the outperformance of Scottish companies compared to wider indices.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here