Equity boom delivers shock result in September

A £100 billion landmark for Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) alongside recovery progress by Glencore (LSE:GLEN), BP (LSE:BP.) and Vodafone Group (LSE:VOD) helped drive the FTSE 100 index to its best quarter in almost three years.

Other strong performers included GSK (LSE:GSK), Anglo American (LSE:AAL) and HSBC Holdings (LSE:HSBA) as almost a third of the blue-chip index registered gains of at least 10% in the July to September period.

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The FTSE 100 index ended the quarter at a record 9,350.43, having rallied by 6.7% in its biggest percentage rise since the final quarter of 2022 and by 1.8% in September.

The year-to-date improvement showed an impressive 15%, still only a mid-table performance on the global stage after the Hang Seng index rose 34% and the Nasdaq Composite by 17%.

Source: ShareScope. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

The quarter, which began with the clock ticking down to a 9 July tariffs extension deadline, ended with the S&P 500 index 7.8% higher across the three months after a Federal Reserve interest rate cut added to optimism triggered by a series of US trade deals.

September’s decade record as the worst of the year for US markets was turned on its head as the S&P 500 index surprised with a 3.5% rise what was its best performance in the month for 15 years.

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The rally came with the artificial intelligence (AI) trade still in play and global fund managers at their most bullish since February as fears of a recessionary trade war have continued to fade.

The outlook for lower US interest rates over the rest of 2025 meant another boost to the appeal of non-yielding gold, which set a record high of $3,859 an ounce after rising 16.8% in the third quarter and by 11.9% in September.

Last month’s performance was the strongest since August 2011, when the US was in the midst of  its debt ceiling crisis and Europe’s sovereign debt worries were escalating.

Gold is up 47% on a year-to-date basis, which Deutsche Bank said left the precious metal on track for its strongest annual performance since 1979.

Prices that year surged 127% against the backdrop of the oil crisis after the Iranian Revolution, which caused a fresh surge for inflation and led investors to seek out gold as a hedge.

Exposure to much stronger gold and silver prices meant Fresnillo (LSE:FRES) topped the FTSE 100 rankings in terms of performance for September, the third quarter and 2025 - up 32%, 64% and 282%.

Berenberg said recently that it expects the Mexico-based miner to declare another sizable special dividend with its 2025 results, offering further shareholder return upside.

Antofagasta (LSE:ANTO) rose 28% in September and by 52% in the quarter as two of its mines produce copper concentrate containing gold and silver.

West Africa-focused Endeavour Mining (LSE:EDV) completed the quarter’s mining sector sweep of the top three positions in the FTSE 100 following a rise of 39.1%.

Anglo American bounced 29.5% and by 22.2% in September after its merger deal with Teck Resources to create a new copper industry powerhouse was accompanied by a strong period for the price of the key energy transition metal.

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Glencore also featured in the quarter’s FTSE 100 top 10 as shares registered a rise of 20%, most of which took place during September.

Despite the recovery to 340.5p, the shares remain 16% lower year to date after falling as far as 230p in April’s Liberation Day sell-off and then being impacted by protracted price weakness in the metallurgical coal market.

Source: ShareScope. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Rolls-Royce ended the quarter with a stock market valuation of £100 billion as the fifth largest company in the FTSE 100, behind AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN), HSBC, Shell (LSE:SHEL) and Unilever (LSE:ULVR).

Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who has overseen a 10-fold increase in share price since taking over in January 2023, told the BBC in August that the group has the “potential” to become the UK's highest-valued company.

His optimism is built around the company’s role in powering the data centres behind the adoption of AI. Shares rose 11.2% in September and by 23% in the quarter after results in late July included a 43% beat on half-year earnings and improved guidance.

Several stocks in the FTSE 100 benefited from a pick-up in China economic sentiment as the Hang Seng index rose 11.6% and Shanghai Composite by 12.7% in the quarter.

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HSBC ended September as London’s most valuable stock after a rise of 18.5% in the quarter left the banking giant up by 46.9% year-to-date. Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN) also rallied 18.9% in the quarter, with Prudential (LSE:PRU) up 14.1%.

The past month has been tougher for BP and Vodafone but their shares remain on track to show a recovery in 2025 after rising by 16.4% and 11% across the third quarter.

Last month’s strongest performers included Kingfisher (LSE:KGF), which surged by a fifth on the back of its improved full-year guidance, and BAE Systems (LSE:BA.) with a further gain of 17.2% to 2,039p.

Thirty FTSE 100 stocks rose by 5% or more in the month, including GSK after shares lifted 8.4% to leave the pharmaceuticals giant at its highest level of the year at 1,596p.