Our share tips advanced across a broad front again last week with all four portfolios achieving record valuations when we carried out our review.
The new 2014 selections led the way, doubling previous gains and ending their second week with an increase approaching 5.0%. Their overall showing was boosted by particularly strong support for Scotland's Smart Metering and Iomart, while IMI and Dunelm also showed signs of picking up after a slow start.
But the standout performance came from alternative energy provider Infinis, which attracted fresh buying and is now up more than 18% in a fortnight.
We would have done still better if we had managed to hold on to our holding in industrial lighting group Dialight, which was ejected from the portfolio a week ago when its share price fell 10% and triggered a sell signal under our stop/loss system.
The shares have since staged a useful recovery after a raft of buying notes from stockbrokers and we were tempted to re-invest in the company on Wednesday. In the event, we decided to hold back for a further week to monitor progress.
The Dialight performance demonstrated that the stop/loss system is far from infallible, but it has served us well in the past and ensures we minimise losses when the stock market falls out of love with individual shares.
Last week, we raised this notional selling price on no fewer than 21 tips that had all reached new high points since our original recommendations.
Anglo-American jeweller Signet is our only tip that appears in imminent danger of eviction under this system after its shares took a sharp knock when directors admitted they had cut prices to meet their sales targets over Christmas.
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