Most of our share tips managed to keep their cool last week as stock market suffered wild swings in both directions on the latest twists and turns in the epic Greek financial saga.
True, the total value of our four portfolios was down by more than 2 per cent when we carried out our review of progress on Thursday morning.
But that was little more than half the fall in the benchmark FT-SE 100 share index over the same period --and most of our losses were down to the poor performance of only a handful of recommendations.
The causalities included the Dutch based Reed Elsevier and retail group Kingfisher, owner of the French Castorama chain, which were both hit by worries over the Greek impact on Eurozone economies.
International concerns also took a toll on global caterer Compass amid fears that the Tunisian atrocity could hit its airlines business while we were forced to eject mining giant Rio Tito from our 2014 portfolio after the shares tumbled to their stop loss level on disappointing economic updates from China.
Closer to home , Tom Cross's oil and gas hopeful Parkmead slipped towards yet another low as investors showed their unease over low commodity prices and the lack of activity following its recent fund raising.
The share price is now less than half levels ruling last year and followers claim the company is sitting on more than £50 million cash compared with a stock market value of only £108 million. Even so, we will be cutting losses on our notional holdings on any further price slippage.
Dairy Crest shares also recorded a sharp fall but this was balanced by payment of its generous dividend.
Most other tips showed little overall change on the week with a few such as social housing contractor Mears, wallpapers group Walker Greenbank, Belhaven Brewery owner Greene King and motorway barriers supplier Hill & Smith edging higher as investors sought out UK shares which appear to offer a degree of immunity from the international worries.
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