The FTSE 100 stocks that have turned £100 into £30k over the past 40 years

The blog section was updated on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2024 at 12:16 pm.

City A.M. is reflecting on the businesses that have influenced the FTSE 100 throughout its 40-year history.

Many companies have entered and exited London's primary stock index since it was first introduced. Presently, only 26 of the initial members remain, but even those have undergone significant changes and may not be recognizable to the average person.

Out of the 26 companies, only three have transformed an initial investment of £100 into an amount exceeding £30,000. Interestingly, these three firms may not be the ones you would anticipate.

The company that has shown the most growth in the FTSE index during the past four decades is now known as RELX, but used to be called Reed International. If an individual had invested £100 and reinvested their dividends, their investment would now be valued at more than £35,000.

In 1993, the current shape of the company was established through the merger of Reed International, a book publisher, and Elsevier, a scientific publisher based in the Netherlands. Ever since, they have placed a significant amount of investment in the development of their data analytics abilities.

The value of its stocks increased by more than 30 percent by 2023.

Investing in British American Tobacco would have produced a substantial profit as well.

Even though smoking rates have decreased in the UK, if someone had invested £100 in 1984, they would now have a total return of £33,000, making it a profitable investment.

Even though British American Tobacco's stocks experienced a decline of slightly over 30% in 2023, the company is banking on the popularity increase of e-cigarettes.

The third company that would have transformed an initial investment of £100 into a whopping amount of £30,000 is Rio Tinto.

Rio, the large mining company, had a difficult beginning to 2023 due to China's slow economic comeback. However, the optimism surrounding their fresh iron ore mine in Guinea contributed to them winning back their investors' trust in the latter half.

We present to you the best ten stocks of 1984, taking into account an initial investment of £100.