From Tesla to Inditex: Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start - winners and losers in the stock market 18 months after the start of the pandemic.

18 months of pandemic. 1 year and a half. The calendar has advanced and it has been long enough to take stock of what it has meant in terms of stock markets.

While some companies have been able to take advantage of digitalization and changes in consumer habits by society, others have had no choice but to kneel for the devastating effects of COVID-19 on their businesses. This is the case in the hotel sector, airlines, restaurants, the leisure industry, retail and, especially, the retail sector.

But, effectively, better luck in the markets has run the technological, broadcasting platforms of audiovisual content in streaming such as Netflix or Amazon, creators of contactless payment systems through the mobile phone or card, ecommerce in general and the sector of the large pharmaceutical industries such as Moderna and BioNTech, 2 of the great developers of messenger RNA vaccines against the coronavirus.

Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start

But 18 months give for a lot and the winners of yesterday, began to be the losers of today and vice versa. It is what became known as the great sectoral rotation. Without going any further, during the first 3 months of the year, defensive assets were neglected, and gold recorded negative returns of up to 10%.

Meanwhile, risk assets continued the trend of 2020, but with a rotation that can be summarized as a movement of investment grade balance sheets towards weak ones, affecting both credit and equities.

“In the second quarter, the rotation is reversed, a little bit with a return to growth stocks in place, such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, and Alphabet (the FAANMG), which were in line with the u.s. market by mid-year to a 15%”, discussed in a report that has had access Yves Bonzon, CIO of Julius Baer.

Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start

With this context and knowing that there have been ups and downs in the sectors as the economic reopening has begun, it is worth noting which companies have been winners and losers in this time.

Despite the fact that the momentum of many securities has cooled in recent months, many of the large capitalization companies have emerged as the winners of the last year and a half. This is the case, clearly highlighted, of Tesla, Amazon and Nvidia.

The case of the electric vehicle manufacturer. Its shares have skyrocketed in these times by 324%, reaching a market capitalization of 654,000 million dollars (about 551,000 million euros). A valuation that does not get the combination of Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors.

Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start

The company's turnover amounted to 10,389 million dollars (8,762 million euros), 74% more than the same period last year, while 0.93 dollars per share.

Amazon is another great example. The titles of the Seattle-based company have skyrocketed more than 65% in this period as a result of the greater boom in e-commerce, but also due to the growth of its other divisions: such as AWS, the company's cloud business; or the bet of the firm founded by Jeff Bezos for streaming.

The company has succeeded in the first trimester of 2021 to triple its profit 8,107 million dollars (approximately 6,670 million euros) regarding the same period in 2020. These figures respond precisely to this expansion that Amazon is developing in e-commerce and the cloud.

This has led Amazon to reach a market capitalization of 2 trillion dollars (1.7 trillion euros) and analysts believe that there may be a lot of potential ahead.

Some experts believe that in 4 years their valuation on the stock market could be more than 5 billion dollars (4.2 billion euros) and that their competitors could be far behind in this particular race that they now lead.

Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start

And, within the tech space, Microsoft and Nvidia are the other 2 big winners. The firm founded by Bill Gates has seen how its shares have emerged to exceed 2 billion market capitalization (1.7 billion euros), at the same time that its shares have skyrocketed 46%.

Likewise, Microsoft skyrocketed its profit in the first quarter of 2021 by 44%, thanks to the total expansion of its cloud services. Now, experts believe that it can follow that trend and that it has catalysts to take advantage of.

Nvidia, on the other hand, has managed to come out highly benefited by the great demand for semiconductors. Its securities have climbed 246% during these 18 months, at the same time that its profit doubled in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same period last year.

They are examples of big winners of the pandemic, but there have also been others, such as Apple, Moderna and BioNTech (developers of the COVID-19 vaccine). The latter two have skyrocketed their share by 979% and 1,519% respectively, after having recorded record profits.

On the other side of the balance is some names in the hotel sector, airlines, restaurants, companies in the leisure industry, retail and especially the retail sector, which saw how for the first time in many years their sales.

Of course, now with the reopening of the economies their business activity is reactivating and an accelerated recovery is beginning to take place.

In airlines there are great examples in the United States such as American Airlines and Delta Airlines, but also IAG in Spain. In the case of the Spanish-English company its price has plummeted by 59% from the highs prior to the pandemic as a result of the restrictions. Something that is perfectly evident when registering losses of 1,067 million euros, 36.6% less than in the first quarter of 2020.

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The same goes for Inditex and H&M. The two retail companies –which are part of the textile industry-lost 5% and 2% in the markets in the last 18 months, respectively. They are very close to closing the losses caused by the pandemic.

The Galician firm, for example, closed 2020 earning 1,106 million in 2020, 70% less, compared to the previous year. Its recovery is being channeled and proof of this is that the value rises from the lows by 41%.

Finally, there are companies linked to leisure, such as Wynn Resorts, one of the companies linked to gambling and the most important hotels in the world, has also noticed the impact of the pandemic to the point of being among the most affected. The shares of the company yield around 19%, although they have already recovered 152% from lows.

# Stock market winners losers 18 months pandemic start #