Winners and Losers: Here are those who excelled on the stock market this year and those who recorded the largest decline in value

The first half of 2023, filled with stressful events for the markets, is behind us. Starting from the significant rise in stocks in the technology sector driven by artificial intelligence, the return of cryptocurrencies to some old figures, to the worst banking collapse since the fall of Lehman Brothers, the last few months have marked significant shifts in the global market. All of this is connected by the relentless rise in interest rates that has most affected publicly traded companies in the past year.

‘Tech’ Champions

The cycle of interest rate hikes slowed down last month, with the U.S. FED deciding to pause increases in June, while the European Central Bank raised its rates by just a quarter point. Although a tightening of monetary policy has been announced at the upcoming central bank meetings, investor sentiment has significantly improved.

Thanks to ChatGPT, the boom in artificial intelligence has led to technology giants, so-called ‘big tech’ companies, enjoying a combined growth of 70 percent, with Apple currently leading the market with a market capitalization increase of $984 billion.

An overview of the global stock market, where U.S. technology companies clearly lead, was published on LinkedIn by Danijel Delač, a member of the Management Board of Interkapital Securities.

‒ Gainers are predominantly technology champions of all kinds and colors, while losers are mainly pharmaceutical and financial companies. The madness around AI on one side, and the panic around the U.S. banking sector after SVB on the other. Among gainers , luxury sector companies have also performed well – writes Delač.

Indeed, among the winners this year after Apple are Microsoft, with a growth of $744 billion, Nvidia with a growth of $687 billion, Amazon with a growth of $481 billion, and Tesla with a growth of $441 billion. There is also Meta , which grew by $420 billion, as well as Alphabet , which achieved a market capitalization increase of $382 billion.

The largest oil company in the world, Saudi Aramco also made it to the list of the biggest winners in the first half of this year with a growth of $199 billion, just like the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which achieved a growth of $98 billion. The French fashion conglomerate LVMH is the only luxury brand that made it to this list, having achieved a market value increase of $107 billion.

The rest of the list of ‘biggest winners’ includes technology companies Broadcom ($124 billion), Oracle ($103 billion), TSMC ($101 billion), AMD ($79 billion), Salesforce ($74 billion), Samsung ($71 billion), and SML ($70 billion).

The Biggest Loser is Pfizer

On the other hand, the biggest loser this year is Pfizer, with a decline in market capitalization of $81 billion. Following it is the American multinational financial services company Charles Schwab, which lost $52 billion in market capitalization, while third place goes to the American oil company Chevron (-$49 billion). Besides Pfizer, other losers from the pharmaceutical industry include AbbVie with a value loss of $48 billion, UnitedHealth also with a loss of $48 billion, CVS Health with a loss of $34 billion, Johnson & Johnson with a loss of $30 billion, Moderna with a loss of $23 billion, and Amgen with a loss of $22 billion.

Losers also include two Chinese trading companies: Jingdong Mall with a loss of $44 billion and Meituan with a loss of $43 billion. There are also some energy companies like Adani Total Gas, which lost $40 billion in market value, Adani Transmission (loss of $24 billion), ConocoPhillips, which lost $22 billion, Equinor, which also recorded a value decline of $22 billion, and Exxon Mobil, which recorded a decline of $21 billion.

From the financial sector, there are also, along with Charles Schwab, Bank of America (-$37 billion), CM Bank (-$23 billion), and First Republic Bank, which collapsed this year and was taken over by the financial giant JPMorgan.