Another dismal showing by our lack-lustre 2014 portfolio took the edge off a good all-round performance by the majority of our share tips last week.

While other selections pushed to new peaks on the back of the buoyant stock market, the portfolio saw its value down another 1.7% when we carried out our review of progress on Wednesday morning.

Much of the recent damage was caused by a sharp reversal in the fortunes of transport group Wincanton which was finally ejected from the portfolio last week after the share price dropped to its published stop loss level.

We used the proceeds from the notional sale to make a fresh investment in animal feeds to engineering group Carr's on Wednesday following a recent encouraging trading bulletin from the company.

While the group has suffered from lower flour prices and tough conditions in the UK dairy industry, its ultra-efficient new mill at Kirkcaldy has helped boost margins and it stands to gain from US expansion and extra work for its nuclear engineering business.

We have set our usual stop loss target-10% below the current price-at which we advise followers to consider selling on any major reversal.

The system is designed to draw a line under losses but is not infallible.

Last week, for example, we ditched our nominal holdings in the Home Retail group in the 2015 portfolio only to see the share price rebound almost 10% in the next few days.

Even so, our newest portfolio managed to record a useful 1.7% rise last week after Scotland's First Group recovered a chunk of previous losses when brokers at Charles Stanley tipped the company as a potential takeover target.

The 2013 selections scored a similar gain, boosted by renewed support for Glasgow-based Smart Metering Systems while the 2012 added just short of 1% after another burst of share buying for crash barriers group Hill & Smith.