The mid-cap FTSE 250 is ostensibly more representative of the UK economy than its big brother, the multi-national megacorp-laden FTSE 100.
So, in the year of Brexit, how did it do?
Well, Nigel Farage, if you are reading, look away now.
At the time of writing, it was up 3.2%, or 561 points at 17,991, compared to the FTSE 100's 13.7% rise.
A gain is a gain, so perhaps one should not carp in a year when a Prime Minister's gamble on quelling dissident elements of his party ended in his downfall and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland beginning the process of becoming even more semi-detached from Europe.
The FTSE 250's iron deficiency
Much of the FTSE 100's surprisingly resilient performance was down to the revival of the commodity sector, and although the FTSE 250 index has a smattering of minerals extractors, the weighting is not nearly so heavy as it is in the blue-chip index.
Nevertheless, it should not come as a surprise that the top five performers on the FTSE 250 were all diggers.
Top of the tree was iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo PLC (LON:FXPO), up a staggering 582% - a gain that not even the best of the FTSE 100 could match.
The iron ore price started the year languishing at around US$41 per dry metric ton and ended it pretty much at double that level, at US$80.27.
Ferrexpo's share price really started motoring from the beginning of August, after it paid off the last chunk of a US$420mln finance facility.
"Strong cash flow generation from operations due to record production of the group's premium product as well as record sales volumes and lower costs have enabled the group to repay its debt on time and in full,” noted Ferrexpo's chief financial officer, Chris Mawe.
The recovery in the iron ore price also gave a fillip to steel products and pig iron producer Evraz plc (LON:EVR), which rose 198% this year – only good enough for fifth place on the leader board.
Also not quite making the podium in 2016 was multi-commodity play Vedanta Resources PLC (LON:VED), up 217%.
Appropriately, in the silver medal place was Hochschild Mining PLC (LON:HOC), the Latin American precious metals producer, which rose 298%.
Gold and silver prices had a stonking year, as investors sought the safe harbour of precious metals while they waited for the next improbable world event to shake up the financial markets.
Extending the Olympic medals metaphor, as any high school chemistry student knows, bronze is an alloy made mainly from copper, so once again we have an apt company taking the bronze medal: Kaz Minerals (LON:KAZ), the Kazakhstan-focused copper producer.
The company returned to profit at the half-year stage, and also received a boost from the Kazakhstan tenge being allowed to float – or, more accurately, sink – on foreign exchange markets by the country's central bank.
The shares rose 260% on the year.
A year of two halves
It was a year in which non-miners struggled to get a look-in at the top table, so hats off then to Electrocomponents PLC (LON:ECM), the electrical parts distributor.
The FTSE 250 is supposed to be where the up-and-comers make their mark, and Electrocomponents, which crawled higher in the first half of the year, hit the accelerator pedal in the second half to finish the year at double the level at which it started.
Half-year results in November prompted a stampede for the shares at the end of the year, as the group raised profit expectations for the full year.
Sentiment towards the stock would not have been harmed by rival Premier Farnell being taken over by Avnet.
Also doubling in share price this year was Hunting Plc (LON:HTG), the energy services provider.
It was another stock that largely marked time in the first half of the year before a trading update in May caused the market to reappraise the shares.
The update was largely a gloomy one, with the company revealing a loss and grumbling about near-term weakness in its main markets.
On the plus side, the management said it expected the trading environment would stabilise in the latter part of 2016 (so, they got that right) and it boasted of a strong balance sheet and a reduction of debt.
The strong balance sheet did not stop the company from raising £71mln through a share placing in October, and with the oil price recovering, it looks the very model of a recovery play.
Fallen giants
Now, if the FTSE 250 is where one expects to find the up-and-comers, it is also where fallen giants either lick their wounds before rising again, or circle the drain before getting sucked ever lower.
The battle for the worst performer was a close run thing, and at the time of writing was being won by Restaurant Group PLC (LON:RTN), the Franky & Benny eateries operator.
With shares down 52%, it somehow managed to have a worse year than the ever newsworthy Sports Direct International PLC (LON:SPD), down 50%.
A series of profit warnings eventually led to chairman Debbie Hewitt whisking chief executive (CEO) Danny Breithaupt out of the door so they could set the table for former CEO of bookie Paddy Power, Andy McCue, to take over.
Prior to that, finance chief Stephen Critorph had walked the plank in April following a profit warning.
The new boss has already started swinging the axe, with 14 Frankie & Benny sites earmarked for closure, along with 11 branches of Mexican-food chain Chiquito and eight other restaurants.
The poor performance at themed Frankie & Benny's had suffered because of "unsuccessful menu development and poor operational execution," the firm said.
If Restaurant Group is one of those companies that could rise again after licking its wounds – they probably taste better than the food at Chiquito – then cheapo sportswear provider Sports Direct is possibly one of those companies that will make its comeback in private ownership.
Majority stakeholder Mike Ashley is used to having the City on his back but this year MPs got into the act, as he was taken to task by Parliament over the treatment of its workers, while profits were battered by the slump in the value of the pound.
Ashley's response has been to instigate a back-to-basics policy with a medium-to-long-term goal of becoming the 'Selfridges of sports retail'.
One wonders how Selfridges feels about this aim?
Much the same, in all probability, as Nicole Kidman would feel were Lily Savage to proclaim an ambition to become 'the Nicole Kidman of stand-up'.
Shares in Sports Direct halved during the year, which is not the kind of buy one, get one free (BOGOF) shareholders had in mind at the start of the year. Have they become cheap enough for Mike Ashley to bog-off back to the private sector? Stay tuned ...