Since peaking in mid-August, the FTSE 100 index has taken a breather recently. On 13 August, the Footsie hit its 2021 intra-day high of 7,224.46 points. As I write, it hovers around 6,989.93 points, down almost 235 points (-3.2%) from its summer peak. Most of this weakness has occurred over the past month, with the index losing 2.7% since 6 September. However, many FTSE 100 stocks have fallen further than 2.7%. Indeed, a few Footsie shares have crashed in the past 30 days. Thus, I went digging around in the index to seek out any recently discounted bargains.
The FTSE 100’s jumpers and slumpers
The FTSE 100 contains 101 stocks, because one is dual-listed. Of these 101 shares, 29 have risen in value over 30 days. The biggest gain among these 29 winners was almost three-tenths (+29.0%), while the smallest was just above 0%. Across all 29 gainers, the average rise was 6.6%. That’s 9.3 percentage points ahead of the wider index.
This leaves 72 FTSE 100 losers over the past month. The smallest loss among these 72 decliners was a mere 0.1%. The largest loss was a sixth (-16.7%), while the average loss across all 72 losers was 7.2%. Included among these shrinking shares were 19 stocks that recorded double-digit declines (of 10%+). But the very worst performers did rather badly indeed.
The Footsie’s five biggest flops
These are the FTSE 100’s five biggest fallers over the past month:
| Company | Sector | 1-month loss |
| Polymetal International | Precious metals | -15.0% |
| AVEVA Group | Industrial software | -15.8% |
| Anglo American | Mining | -15.8% |
|
Royal Mail |
Postal services | -16.3% |
| Ocado Group | Online grocer | -16.7% |
As you can see, losses at these five FTSE 100 fallers range from 15% to 16.7%. In 97th place is Polymetal International, an Anglo-Russian miner of gold, silver, and copper. The gold price has dropped by almost $150 an ounce since peaking in June, which may explain Polymetal’s recent plight. Another mining stock suffering from falling metals prices is Anglo American, down 15.8% over one month. AVEVA Group, which provides engineering, design, and information management software, also saw its shares drop by the same percentage.
In 100th place in my ranking is Royal Mail (-16.3%), the British postal service and courier company that dates back to 1516. Royal Mail shares have plunged by more than £2 since peaking at 613.8p in early June and currently trade at 406.2p. That’s a crash of more than a third (-33.8%) in four months. Lastly, my final FTSE 100 flunker is online supermarket Ocado Group, whose shares are down a sixth (-16.7%) in 30 days. Also, Ocado shares have lost almost £12 since I gave them the thumbs down on 28 January this year. That’s a collapse of around three-sevenths (-42.0%) in just over eight months to today’s 1,656p. Yikes.
Which of these fallers would I buy?
As a veteran value investor, I’m always looking out for attractively priced shares. I seek stocks trading on low ratings, but with potential for recovery. And the FTSE 100 share I most like from my five flops is Polymetal. The £5.9bn miner’s shares trade on a lowly price-to-earnings ratio of 7.3 and a chunky earnings yield of 13.7%. Also, this stock offers a market-beating dividend yield of 7.7% a year, more than double the Footsie’s forecast yield of 3.8% for 2021. I don’t own POLY today, but I’d gladly buy at the current share price of 1,259p. However, my long experience of investing in volatile mining stocks tells me that holding POLY is likely to be a bumpy ride!
