The Stock Market in March

Since 1990 the market has had an average return of 0.2% in March, with returns positive in 54% of all years.

This ranks March seventh among months of the year for market performance. Although as can be seen in the accompanying chart, negative returns have been seen in March with increasing frequency in recent years.

The general trend for the market in March is to rise for the first three weeks and then fall back in the final week – the last week of March has historically been one of the weakest weeks for the market in the whole year.

Small cap v large cap

Small cap stocks tend to outperform large cap stocks at the beginning of the year, and March marks the final month of the three-month period when the FTSE 250 strongly out-performs the FTSE 100. Since 1986 in March on average the FTSE 250 has out-performed the FTSE 100 by 0.8 percentage points.

Sectors

The sectors that tend to be strong in March are: Chemicals, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Transportation, Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution, and Support Services. The Chemicals and Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution sectors have seen positive returns every March for the past 11 years. While the weak sectors in March have been: Banks, Fixed Line Telecommunications, Gas, Water & Multiutilities, Nonlife Insurance, and Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology. The Banks sector has the worst record: it has seen positive returns in only three of the past 11 years.

Shares

For stocks, the FTSE 350 shares that have performed the best over the last ten years in March are: IWG [IWG], Clarkson [CKN], Senior [SNR], Intertek Group [ITRK], and Petrofac Ltd [PFC]. Clarkson, Intertek, and Petrofac shares have only been down in March once in the past 11 years.

The weakest FTSE 350 shares in March have been Vectura Group [VEC], Lancashire Holdings Ltd [LRE], Kier Group [KIE], Renishaw [RSW], and HSBC Holdings [HSBA].
 

Dividends

March is the busiest month of the year for FTSE 100 companies paying dividends. And it’s also a busy month for company announcements: the busiest for FTSE 250 companies in the year with 71 companies announcing their prelims this month (along with 24 FTSE 100 companies).

Aside from stocks, March has often been a weak month for gold and a strong month for oil.
 

Holidays

It’s Good Friday at the end of the month. A famous anomaly in stock markets is that prices tend to be strong on the day preceding and the day following a holiday. This effect is strongest in the year around the Easter holiday.

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