2012 was a good one for small caps stocks, with the FTSE Small Cap index ending the year at 3419, up 25.2% on the year.
The top performer on the year was travel firm Thomas Cook (LON:TCG), back from the brink of bankruptcy and up 224% on the year.
Holders of online gaming outfit 888 Holdings (LON:888) came up trumps, as the company shot up 177%, on the back of a strong performance by its business-to-consumer division.
Recovery play Findel (LON:FDL) finished the year in the bronze medal spot, rising 150%. The home shopping and education materials supplier really put on a spurt in the second half of the year, spurred on by its Express Gifts arm.
Despite the FTSE Small Cap index enjoying a year which made the FTSE 100’s 6% advance look decidedly pedestrian, there were some duffers to be found among the minnows.
CPP Group (LON:CPP), the identity theft and credit card insurer, spent much of the year under a cloud as a result of demands by the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to undertake a review of business practices and to make various changes to its renewals process.
Losing a contract with Barclaycard did not help matters either, but at least the stock ended the year strongly after a £10.5mln fine from the FSA for mis-selling insurance products appeared to draw a line under what the company called “historic failings”.
The stock lost almost nine-tenths of its value in 2012.
Promethean World (LON:PRW) had one of the least successful flotations in living memory in 2010, and 2012 was not a lot better, with profit warnings coming thick and fast. The shares lost just over two-thirds of their worth last year.
Northern Europe focused publishing business, Mecom (LON:MEC), was another stock which had to warn on profits during the year. The group has been hit by a double whammy of falling circulation and lower advertising levels.
The price of gold rose by more than 4% last year but that was little consolation to West African gold miner Avocent Mining, which lost two-thirds of its value in 2012 and its chief executive along the way too.
The firm scaled back production guidance for the year and flagged up a downward estimate of mineral reserves at its Inata mine in Burkina Faso. The dividend payment was also binned in 2012.
The list of laggards is completed by Lamprell (LON:LAM), the oil and gas engineering firm which slumped into the red last year as contract delays and soaring costs bit hard.
An eleventh hour deal to waive certain year-end banking covenants was announced this week, meaning that the future of the oil rig maker is looking a lot brighter.