Sharemarket winners and losers of last financial year

Raging inflation, massive increases in interest rates, the global economy weakening… and the ASX-200 share index went up 10.14 per cent. Who would have thought?

With so much doom and gloom around, share investors well and truly beat inflation and interest rate returns. I love a good dose of perspective. But remember this is the ASX-200 which is the large company end of the market. The small and mid-cap stocks, particularly those not making a profit, had a much tougher financial year.

At the big quality end of the market, the gains were across the board. Surprisingly the technology companies led the way with the biggest gains.

While big tech companies have led the US market over the last year, Australia’s equivalent haven’t been given the kudos of doing the same… the likes of Xero, WiseTech, TechnologyOne, Altium and Audinate have had super impressive rises.

The top five performers are a surprising mix. Yes, there’s the “hot” lithium stocks like Liontown and Pilbara in the mix and logistics tech company WiseTech has been a market darling all year.

But who would have thought Telix Pharmaceuticals and Life360 (which was the 8th worst performer the previous year) would make a top five list?

What a difference a year makes. While Life360 went from being a “dog” in 2021/22, BrainChip did the reverse and went from the penthouse (top performer) to the doghouse in 2022/23.

But here’s the thing. There is an investment strategy called “The Dogs of the Dow” where you invest an equal amount (keep it relatively small) in the worst performing big cap stocks (in the ASX 200) at the end of a year and you’ll make money over the next 12 months.

This is not a recommendation, just an interesting theory which came out of the US, hence its name “Dogs of the Dow”. So here are the five worst performing stocks in the ASX-200 for the last financial year. Put them on your watch list and see how they go.