Our share tips struggled to keep pace with the flying footsie over the first quarter of this year with the total value of our four portfolios showing a gain of 7.25% when we carried out our review of progress on Wednesday, only marginally ahead of the increase recorded by the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 share index.
Both our 2014 and 2013 selections lagged well behind with gains of 4.1% and 3.4% respectively while the 2015 list managed a 7.4 per cent rise only after a lucrative takeover offer for Scotland's Optos retinal imaging group.
But our blushes were spared by an upsurge in the valuation of our flagship 2012 portfolio which has risen some 14.3 per cent over the past three months and recorded profits of more than £5,000 for the first time last week.
Much of the disappointment elsewhere was down to the dismal performance of a handful of tips with Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail and the Majestic wine warehouse group particularly hard hit by news of disappointing sales.
We are convinced that both show signs of bottoming out at current levels and should recover as high street conditions improve on the back of the latest zero inflation figures. But we will not hesitate to sell our notional notional holdings if the shares fall further to their stop loss targets.
A number of other shares, including digital radio specialist Sepura and transport group Wincanton also appear in danger of triggering sell signals under the stop loss system after running into selling pressure after earlier rises.
The 2013 list has already seen recent departures of AstraZeneca and RBS under this system and recorded a much-needed 1.8 per cent recovery last week, helped by a good debut by replacement recommendation Glasgow-based Smart Metering Systems.
We have taken further action this week with the addition of luxury wallpapers group Walker Greenbank ahead of yearly figures next month which should include news of major contract wins for its new digital printing arm whose customers include George Osborne's family firm Osborne & Little.
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