Meet Super Ted - star of the FTSE 100

GLANCE at any survey of the most-admired bosses and the names of Lord Browne of BP, Tesco's Sir Terry Leahy and Sir Fred 'the Shred' Goodwin at Royal Bank of Scotland figure prominently.

Yet research for Financial Mail reveals that despite praise heaped on these titans of industry, the best returns for shareholders over the past five years have been produced by the lesser lights of the FTSE 100. Since the crash of 2000, investors have sought solace in beer and cigarettes, making Ted Tuppen, boss of Enterprise Inns, top of the league for shareholder value with a 482% return, according to the figures from financial information group Hemscott.

Also in the top ten are Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Gallaher.

The figures reflect total shareholder returns - including rising share values, dividend payouts and share buy-backs - and assume that any dividends are reinvested in shares.

Pub and tobacco groups have been relatively immune to trends in the wider economy and unfazed

by the slump in media and technology stocks. Others showing big gains for investors were building materials group Wolseley and fashion chain Next.

With the boom in emerging economies, commodity companies enjoyed impressive gains and it is no surprise to see copper producer Antofagasta and the coalminer BHP Billiton in the top ten.

Tesco was well behind, checking out a return for shareholders of 60%, while Royal Bank of Scotland gained 95% and BP a mere 5%.

The spectacular returns by some far outstrip returns from a typical bank savings account -about 16% over five years.

Though that return was meagre, savers' money was at least secure, which was not the case for those who held some shares.

The worst performer was Cable & Wireless, whose shareholders saw their investment shrink by 86%. Investors in ailing BT Group lost 72%, while shares in software company Sage Group fell 69%.

Yet there were some impressive showings even in the struggling telecoms, software and finance sectors. Mobile phones group O2 was one such a gem, returning 56%, while its peers averageda loss of 37%. Hedge fund manager Man Group, headed by Stanley Fink, is another outperformer.

Hedge funds use a range of investment techniques, including gambling on share price falls.

They have become a controversial feature of the stock market in the past five years, but Man's methods have delivered a dramatic return for shareholders of 184%, while Schroders and Amvescap, traditional-fund managers in the Footsie-lost 19% and 61% respectively.

And still with finance, mortgage bank Northern Rock benefited from the housing boom, delivering a 179% return, while High Street bank Lloyds TSB saw a fall of 5%.

Chemicals giant ICI collected the wooden spoon, underperforming the average in its sector by a stunning 1,000%.

Our table shows the ten top-performing companies and tracks the performance of a selection of key market sectors since 2000

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