John Phelps' portfolio

Sunday 27 May 2012

We took the opportunity to refresh our investment portfolios with three new selections on Wednesday morning after our existing share tips turned in another sturdy performance.

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We believe Scottish heavyweights SSE and FirstGroup along with Irn-Bru manufacturer AG Barr should be relatively safe from the ructions caused by the continuing euro crisis although we have set our usual stop/loss levels at which investors should consider selling the shares on any substantial setback.

SSE and FirstGroup were both chosen for their hefty dividend payments, confirmed in recent results presentations. Similarly, Barr's latest trading update showed its abilities to build market share during recent poor weather across much of the UK and we expect the shares to stage a useful bounce on any signs of a return to a more normal summer .The cash outlay for the notional purchases was more than balanced by proceeds from the sales of our shares in John Menzies and Optos last week after both triggered sell signal under the stop/loss system.We do not always follow our own advice, however, and decided to hold onto shares in B&Q retailer Kingfisher and temporary power supplier Aggreko which also suffered sharp falls over the week. We will review our decision on Wednesday.Despite these setbacks, three out of our four portfolios increased in value over the week. The latest 2012 list gained from another surge in the price of Glasgow's Smart Metering Systems to add another 2% to its overall value and is now up by some 18.7% at a time when the FTSE 100 share index has been bumping along at six month lows. The 2009 selections also gained from the Smart performance while the 2010 portfolio was boosted by another rise in Carr's Milling Industries.

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