Our share tips were given a flying start to the new year as optimistic investors helped stock markets to continue their unlikely rally in the face of global economic woes.

The new 2012 portfolio ended its first week with a healthy rise of 1.5% and there were still bigger gains for the 2009 and 2011 selections when we carried out our review of progress on Wednesday morning.

The one slight disappointment was the 2010 portfolio which was virtually unchanged over the week after profit-taking in the high-flying Carr's Milling Industries cancelled out gains elsewhere.

While share prices advanced across a broad front, it was notable that the biggest gains were seen in major companies which earn the bulk of their cash overseas.

Scotch whisky exporter Diageo, credit checking agency Experian, temporary power supplier Aggreko and the Compass catering giant all enjoyed above-average rises.

We believe that the stock market continues to offer good value at current levels but we have stepped up preparations for any significant setback by raising our stop/loss levels for these shares.

This figure is used as a sell signal and is set some 10% below previous share price peaks to ensure we can minimise losses while hanging onto the bulk of profits.

Shares in smaller, more speculative companies tended to miss out on last week's market advance and we were disappointed to see small falls in the prices of Scottish technology-based hopefuls Iomart, Smart Metering and Optos as investors sought out the perceived safety of larger business.

But these three companies bucked the general trend by seeing share price rises last year when the average small company recorded a 25% fall and we remain confident of an early recovery.