Welcome to September, fellow Fools! With a new month and season upon us today, it's a great time to check out how the markets performed on the month that has just passed us by. So today, we'll be checking out the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), and how it went over August compared with the United Kingdom's FTSE 100 Index (INDEXFTSE: UKX).
Much how the ASX 200 encompasses the largest 200 companies on the Australian share market, the FTSE 100 tracks the performance of the largest 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Both of these indexes are useful benchmarks that effectively track the performance of the Aussie and British share markets respectively. So let's see how we measured up against the Motherland over August.
So the ASX 200 started August at a level of 7,392.6 points. Yesterday, the ASX 200 closed at 7,543.3 points. That puts its total gains for August at a healthy 2.04%.
So how does this compare to the FTSE 100?
Well, the FTSE 100 started August at 7,032.3 points. Yesterday, it ended the month at 7,119.7 points. That puts its monthly gain at 1.24%.
So head to head over August, the ASX 200 comes up on top with a 2.04% gain, clearly outperforming the FTSE 100's 1.24%.
The ASX 200 also comes out on top over some other periods too, as of today anyway. Year to date in 2021 so far, the ASX 200 has managed to put on a very pleasing 11.91%. Over the same period, the FTSE 100 is up 8.34%.
Over the past 12 months, we also see the ASX 200 pip the FTSE to the post. The ASX 200 has managed to gain 25.65% over the past 12 months. In contrast, the FTSE 100 has put on 21.45%.
How does the ASX 200 compare to the FTSE 100?
There are both similarities and differences in how these two indexes are constructed. For one, the FTSE actually has a few famous Aussie names on it. You'll find both Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) amongst its top 10 holdings, which of course is a very similar situation to the ASX 200.
But while the ASX 200 has 5 bank shares in its top 10 holdings, the FTSE presently only has one – HSBC Holdings plc (LON: HSBA). That's according to fund provider BetaShares, whose BetaShares FTSE 100 ETF (ASX: F100) tracks the FTSE 100.
Instead of more banks, the FTSE has a global tobacco giant in British American Tobacco plc (LON: BATS), an alcoholic beverages company in Diageo plc (LON: DGE) and a pharma titan in AstraZeneca plc (LON: AZN). All companies that we can't really say we have an ASX equivalent to.
Even so, the numbers speak for themselves: ASX investors have fared better than FTSE 100 investors over August, 2021 so far, and the past 12 months. Bring on the Ashes!
