If I had invested £5,000 in the FTSE 100 index fund 5 years ago, here is how much I would have now.

I FTSE 100 it is the UK’s leading equity index, and attracts a lot of interest from investors at home and abroad. It is renowned as a home for large, well-established companies with extensive global reach and expertise in all sectors. Big names include Lloyds, BPagain AstraZeneca.

Footsie is also seen as a measure of the health of the stock market and the British economy. Unfortunately, this has affected profits in recent years due to difficult economic conditions and political turmoil.

So how much would I have made if I had invested £5,000 in the FTSE 100 tracker fund back in November 2019?

Returns to £5k

Five years ago, the FTSE was sitting comfortably at 7,346.53 points. Then came the pandemic and the world was shut down, causing the world’s stock markets to crash. The index came within a touching range of 5,000 points at one point.

There have been a few bumps in the road. But the flagship index has recovered slightly since then, hitting new records at the time (the current record close of 8,433.76 was set in May).

At 8,267.03 points today, investors have enjoyed a 12.5% ​​return over the past five years. However, this does not take into account dividend income.

For the last time share and the annual yield of 33.1 %.

Based on this, if I had invested £5,000 in the FTSE 100 tracker fund in November 2019, I would now have £6,655 sitting in my trading account.

High performance

That’s a long way off. After all, prices can go up and down. And with stock markets enduring headwinds like Covid-19 and rising interest rates in recent years, I would have made negative returns.

Having said that, the performance of the FTSE 100 during that period has been again it has significantly underperformed those of other major world indices.

US-based S&P 500for example, it has delivered a total return of 100% over the past five years. And the Nikkei in Japan it provided a combined return of 80.5%.

A £5k investment in a fund tracking these indices, therefore, would have earned me £10,000 and £9,025 respectively, excluding the impact of currency fluctuations.

The highest value of the FTSE 100

However, none of this means that the FTSE 100 is a bad place to invest today.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of the future, for one. In addition, some analysts believe that UK stocks may outperform their overseas counterparts in the coming years following their poor performance in recent years.

British Food Related (LSE:ABF) is another stock that I think could rise in value from this point. It has decreased by 15% in value in the last five years. And so it trades at a discounted forward price ratio (P/E) of 11.3 times.

This is well below the FTSE 100 average of 14.3 times. And, in my opinion, it fails to show the shining potential of Primark’s flagship budget clothing division for the company.

Sales and adjusted operating profit here rose by 6% and 51% in the 12 months to September. Despite competitive threats, Primark’s attractive prices and strong branding mean customers continue to flock through its doors.

Encouragingly, ABF is planning rapid expansion into key markets in Europe and North America to increase revenue to the next level. If the recent success continues, I think it could be one of the few FTSE shares to take off in the coming years.