It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but investors have enjoyed a good year so far overall.
As markets slumped off the back of President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements in late March, there were not many commentators forecasting that the S&P 500 would be up 14 per cent this year, in early October.
But the leading US stock market index has staged a remarkable turnaround, as investors shrugged off tariffs and focused on the artificial intelligence-driven tech boom instead.
It’s been a good year for the UK stock market too, with the leading FTSE 100 index up 15 per cent in 2025, so far.
So, what have been the companies leading the way on both sides of the Atlantic and at a broader level?
With the help of saving and investing app Plum, we take a look.
As with all investing, keep in mind your capital is at risk, and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not an indicator of future results, this is simply an analysis of top performers year-to-date which is a relatively short time period and does not include an analysis of negative performers. This is not financial advice.
All data compiled independently using publicly available market data. From 01/01/2025 to 09/10/2025 by This is Money.
Top ten performing S&P 500 shares
Robinhood Markets – up 261.0%
Investment app Robinhood has proved hugely popular with US retail investors, disrupting the existing players in the market with its fee-free share trading. The growth of the platform and earnings upgrades mean its own shares have delivered blockbuster returns. It was added to the benchmark S&P500 index last month.
Seagate Technology – up 199.4%
If you’ve got an external computer hard drive it might say Seagate on it, but the company’s meteoric share price rise this year comes from its role in cloud data centres and the AI trade.
Western Digital – up 189.5%
Western Digital is another computer data stalwart, established as long ago as 1970. Along with Seagate, its shares have been sent soaring by the AI data storage rush.
Data analytics firm Palantir has seen its shares soar again this year
Palantir Technologies – up 142.7%
Palantir deals in big data analytics with a difference. Its software is cutting-edge but it also embeds its consultants in companies, and the strategy has paid off hugely over recent years, with government and defence contracts a strong driver but commercial clients delivering growth too.
Newmont Corporation – up 129%
The first of the top five to not be a tech company, Newmont is the world’s largest gold mining firm and its shares have rocketed off the back of the gold price shooting up.
The rest of the S&P 500 top ten
Micron Technology – up 114.8%
AppLovin – up 112.7%
Lam Research – up 97.9%
GE Vernova – up 82.4%
Warner Bros Discovery – up 81.5%
Top ten performing FTSE 100 shares
Fresnillo PLC – up 132%
Gold and silver miner Fresnillo has rocketed in value this year thanks to the rise in precious metal prices. It is the world’s leading silver producer, and the metal has been chasing gold upwards, as prices rise.
Babcock International Group – up 129%
Babcock is a defence and engineering services company that has seen its shares ride high on dramatically increased European spending on defence.
Rolls-Royce is flying high and the engineer had a summer visit from Chancellor Rachel Reeves
Rolls-Royce – up 70.2%
Rolls-Royce shares have been turbocharged under the boss nicknamed Turbo Tufan. The engineer’s CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç kitchen-sinked the bad news in his early days in charge and set about slashing costs to prepare this British stalwart for recovery. Rolls-Royce has rocketed, with aerospace and defence demand high and excitement over its small nuclear reactors.
BAE Systems– up 64.3%
Britain’s leading defence firm has staged a major recovery as the world has sought to up spending due to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the concern western nations need to be better prepared against threats from Russia, China and elsewhere. A push from US President Trump to get Europe spending more on defence has created a substantial tailwind.
Airtel Africa – up 58.7%
Airtel Africa is the big FTSE 100 stock that you might never have heard of. This telecoms and mobile money provider operates across the African continent and has been growing fast. With a £8.6billion market cap, Airtel Africa is bigger than British Gas-owner Centrica, M&S or Sainsbury’s.
The rest of the top ten
Endeavour Mining – up 56.4%
Prudential – up 43.3%
Lloyds Banking Group – up 40.0%
Coca-Cola HBC AG – up 39.2%
St. James’s Place – up 36.4%
How hard is it to pick winning shares?
If you had invested in any of the individual companies listed above at the start of the year, you would be cheering your investment performance right now.
But as an investor, it would also be important to acknowledge that luck has played a role as well as judgement. It’s easy to pick winners with the benefit of hindsight, it is much harder to consistently do it looking to the future.
Elise Nunn, Senior Investment Product Manager at Plum, says: ‘Index investing pioneer John Bogle famously said “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!” Not only can it be difficult to buy individual winning shares, but time-consuming as well.
‘For example, it is typically recommended that you carry a financial analysis of the stock you’re thinking about, so you’ll need some mathematical skills and be ready to update your analysis on a regular basis.
‘Let’s not forget that the returns from an index are often heavily influenced by a small number of stocks that have extremely high returns, while the vast majority underperform or provide lesser returns. This means your chances of picking a winning share are usually low. For example, the so-called Magnificent Seven stocks account for over a third of the S&P 500’s market weight.’
Why even picking individual markets can be tough?
You may decide that you don’t fancy your chances of picking individual winning shares but might be able to select the markets that can do well. Again, this can be notoriously difficult, as undervalued markets can continue to underperform, and overvalued markets can keep rising beyond reasonable expectations.
Meanwhile, market sentiment can swing around rapidly. In ten months, this year, the US stock market has gone from being hotly in favour, to unloved, to back in favour, to investors fretting about its high level.
Elise Nunn says: ‘Picking individual markets offers more diversification than individual stocks but can be difficult to get right as well, especially in the current global environment where geopolitics is more of an influence on investor outcomes following the election of President Trump in the US.
‘While an individual market index provides diversification across many companies, concentrating on a single country means exposure to that specific market’s risks.
‘For example, let’s consider India. At the start of the year, many people expected its stock market to be one of the strongest global performers given its high economic growth.
‘In addition, its position as a more US-friendly major player in South-East Asia compared to China was expected to mean India would draw US manufacturers with Chinese factories into the country, and Trump and Prime Minister Modi reportedly had a good working relationship. However, imports to the US from India were facing far higher tariffs than China at 50 per cent, with Trump claiming the key factor is India’s ongoing purchase of Russian oil.
‘So individual markets can provide surprises as well, even with well-thought through hypotheses, as they can be quickly upended by political developments.’
Why spreading risk with a broad core fund can pay off
By trying to pick winners, you run the risk of getting it wrong and missing out on the market’s gains. Many investors choose to hold a broad market fund as the core of their portfolio. They can then use smaller satellite investments to tilt their portfolio towards areas you think can outperform.
The views expressed below are for general information only and do not constitute personal investment advice.
Elise Nunn says: ‘We all have heard stories of how someone won big off the back investing in one company. We hear less about the people who get it wrong. Rarely have companies been sure-fire winners decade after decade, let alone year after year, so when it comes to long-term success it makes sense to diversify and spread your risk.
‘While you might get lucky and find your one or two stocks do amazingly well, there is also a very high risk in backing such a small number of investments. If something unexpected happens and things go wrong for the company or investment sector you’ve focused your investment on, without diversification you have no other investments to provide a safety net.
‘That’s why it’s wise to consider spreading the risk through diversifying your portfolio with at least a broad core fund. Hence the saying; don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
‘A core-satellite strategy can give you the best of both worlds, combining both passive and active investing in your portfolio.
‘With index-tracking funds making up the core of your investment according to your risk appetite, most of your portfolio will perform in line with the market it’s tracking.
‘By also choosing additional investments (i.e. the satellites) such as stocks in individual companies to make up the rest of your portfolio, you can explore more specific areas on the periphery of your core holdings.
‘Ideally these satellite investments would be areas that you think could secure market-beating returns (for example high-growth themes or niche areas) or be assets (such as bonds, natural resources or precious metals) that might perform well at different times to the rest of your portfolio.
‘So that means reviewing the underlying holdings of your core fund to ensure your satellite selections add unique exposure and don’t simply replicate. For example, your core fund could be focused on growth while your satellites are there to generate income.
‘Choosing the ratio between the core fund and satellite investments is an important first step, so the higher the proportion that satellite stocks make up of your portfolio, the higher the risk but also the higher the potential reward. Typically, the core makes up a larger portion of your portfolio.’
