THE forced sale of our notional holdings in Glasgow-based power plant group Aggreko took the edge off another good all-round performance by the majority of our share tips last week.
The disposal was made under our stop-loss rule where we evict any tip which has fallen 10 per cent from previous peaks and crystallised a hefty £100 loss for our 2018 portfolio.
It comes after the eviction of energy giant SSE under the same system last week and follows on from previous sales which have left the four investment portfolios sadly short of Scottish members.
We aim to go some way towards redressing the balance over the next few weeks and made a start on Wednesday morning by adding Glasgow’s Smart Metering Systems to the 2015 selections.
We recognise that the shares already enjoy a premium rating but they show signs of moving to a different level since the company’s recent figures which showed that it is now enjoying inflation linked income from 1.25 million customers.
Brokers at Macquarie are particularly enthusiastic and believe the shares could rise by another 90 per cent over the medium term although we are more cautious and will use the stop loss system as a protection against any heavy profit taking.
While there were one or two other disappointments last week, all four portfolios recorded further valuation increases when we carried out our usual mid-week review of progress.
The 2018 selections, for example, came within a whisker of recording a £1,000 gain for the first time as further rises in the shares of technology giant Micro Focus and flavourings and fragrances group Treatt cancelled out the Aggreko loss and another slippage in water treatment concern Pennon.
The 2017 portfolio also managed a small overall rise, helped by further support for Legoland to Madame Tussaud leisure group Merlin and the heavyweight Smiths Industries.
Best performance, though, came from the 2014 list which saw its total valuation jump by 1.8 per cent with all five constituents managing some sort of rise over the week.
The 2016 selections were not far behind with their value rising by 1. 4 per cent after a further useful recovery in the price of Lloyds Banking after previous weakness.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here