The 2013 edition of the Almanac looks at the historic monthly performance of the FTSE 350 sectors. Here we look at the Health Care Equipment & Services sector.

The following chart plots the average out-performance of the FTSE 350 Health Care Equipment & Services sector over the FTSE 100 Index by month since 1999. For example, since 1999 on average the Health Care Equipment & Services sector has out-performed the FTSE 100 Index by 3.4 percentage points in January.

Observations:

1. The strongest months of the year relative to the market for the sector have been January and August, the sector has only under-performed the market in five years since 1999 in August.
2. The sector has been relatively weak in March and October, the the sector has only out-performed the market in five years since 1999 in October.

The two stocks in the FTSE 350 Health Care Equipment & Services sector [NMX4530] are-