A dire showing by Edinburgh video security group IndigoVision took the shine off another solid performance by the majority of our share tips last week.
Its shares took a nasty tumble after chief executive Marcus Kneen warned of a recent slowdown, and we sold our nominal holdings when the share price hit our published stop/loss level.
We were reluctant sellers of the stock and the sales involved a hefty loss. But we use the stop/loss system as an indication that individual shares have fallen out of stock-market favour and that our money could be put to better use elsewhere.
However, those of our followers who have not already sold their IndigoVision shares should consider holding on to them at current prices, as its medium-term prospects look good and the directors still expect double-digit sales growth over a 17-month period.
In current market conditions, professional investors have tended to steer away from smaller firms in favour of more established heavyweight companies in the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 share indices.
We followed their example this week and added mining giant Rio Tinto to our disappointing 2014 portfolio at our weekly review on Wednesday morning.
Rio Tinto has been out of favour for much of the past year because of the slump in metal prices during the economic slowdown. But Australian chief executive Sam Walsh has taken early steps to manage the business for recession and has cut costs for exploration and development to ensure the company can still pay fat dividends.
Technical analysts have said the recent dip in the share price to below the £30 mark could be a trigger for fresh institutional buying regardless of any recovery in commodity prices.
The IndigoVision share slump cancelled out gains elsewhere and left our 2014 and 2012 portfolios nursing fractional overall losses last week.
The 2013 portfolio was unchanged after slippages in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The 2011 selections, however, continued their good run with a further 1.7% appreciation taking its total notional profits past the £5000 mark.
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