Taking stock of this year's key success stories

Insurer Legal & General Group is the best-selling UK stock in 2025, as British investors favour traditional FTSE 100 names over trillion-dollar US technology rivals such as Nvidia, Tesla and Amazon.

- HARVEY JONES

The UK stock market has marginally outperformed the US this year, but there is not much in it, with London and Wall Street neck and neck, both growing around 17%.

The FTSE 100 has the edge, though, as it is full of dividend stocks and offers income on top of growth.

The average yield is 3.25%, against just 1.1% for the US S&P 500. Legal & General delivers one of the highest yields of all at 8.7%, although share price growth has disappointed.

Civil aerospace and defence specialist Rolls-Royce is the best-performing FTSE 100 share over the last three years, rising a staggering 1,111%, which would have turned a £10,000 investment into £121,100. However, the shares look expensive and growth has slowed.