We took profits on Dunfermline's Optos retinal imaging group on Wednesday morning after shareholders nodded through their acceptance of a lucrative takeover offer from the Japanese Nikon group.
The sale realised a notional £358 gain for our 2015 portfolio and freed up sufficient cash to make two fresh share purchases following an earlier disposal of a loss-making investment in the Home Retail Group.
We plumped for very different Scottish companies listed on the AIM market in the form of Edinburgh's healthcare software group Craneware and Berwickshire-based potatoes marketer Produce Investments Craneware was a more obvious choice with the share price nudging new peaks after recent results demonstrated its abilities to fatten margins in its dominant US market ahead of new product launches.
In contrast, Produce Investments has seen its shares price tumble after suffering the effects of a potato glut and supermarket pricing wars but has lifted its already-generous dividend in anticipation of better times ahead following its recent purchase of the Jersey Royals business.
We have set our usual stop loss target, some 10% below the current share price, at which we advise followers to consider selling on any major reversal.
Most of our existing tips slipped back in line with the general market last week with three of our four portfolios recording losses when we carried out our mid-week review of progress.
The 2014 list was the one exception with its valuation rebounding 2.2% following good performances from more recent recommendations Experian and Carr's together with fresh support for the Ricardo engineering group after a strategic acquisition.
But the 2012 portfolio was down an identical 2.2% after sharp falls in FTSE 100 members Carnival and Kingfisher and the 2015 selections gave up 1.7% as FirstGroup shed its recent gains on vague takeover speculation.
The 2014 portfolio recorded a fractional overall slippage with Lloyds Banking the main casualty as a result of Tory plans for a discounted sale of shares to the public.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article