Particularly, the returns on the shares went above the UK Index from March 9th until April 8th, hence making significant returns from the investments. Sentiments indicate that the rise of AstraZeneca shares in market have been on the rise due to the improved pipeline, while other reason contributing to the rise being the approach of Pfizer in supporting the share price (Stephens, 2014).
Another portfolio that made huge returns in the market through the gaming period was British American Tobacco (BATS) LN shares. The total returns from the entire game were 4.033, with the BATS LN Equity performing best from early February to mid-March, with the rest of the gaming period comparing significantly with the UK FTSE 100 Index. The BP LN is another area with highest recorded returns of 7.626 through the entire gaming period. Its Equity performance was when compared to the UK FTSE 100 Index shows too much similarity, in that the shares graph is hand to hand with each other, while its performance curve also kept on rising until the end of the gaming period. The rise of BP shares is a mid some fears of the falling oil market prices. However, traders are citing on the issue of market takeover bid from the Royal Dutch Shell as being the reason behind the rise of BP shares (Routers London Business Daily, 2014).
The next area of investments that created significant returns was the Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) LN, whereby the total returns generated were 3.407. The performance IMT LN Equity index was comparing well with the UK FTSE 100 Index, with the IMT performance index rating higher than the UK FTSE 100 Index for most of the time. The reason behind the continuous rise of Imperial Tobacco Group shares could be due to the cost optimization program that delivers further incremental savings, just as predicted in the company’s 2014 end year financial statement (Hargreaves, 2015).