WE stepped up our dash for cash last week with the sale of a further six of our share tips which have fallen out of stock-market favour in the past few weeks.

The purge realised a total of £7,089 compared with initial total investments of £6,000 to lock in a return of just more than 18.0 per cent.

The four portfolios now share cash reserves of some £15,560 which represent almost half of their total assets.

It is likely that some of this cash will be reinvested in new shares next week but we intend holding on to the bulk as a safety cushion against any further stock-market turbulence.

Last week’s disposals were made under our stop-loss system where we eject any share recommendation which has fallen 10 per cent from previous peaks.

The list of casualties was dominated by heavyweights Whitbread, Sainsbury's, Pennon and Micro Focus which have all suffered from recent stockbroker investment downgrades.

But we were also sorry to lose our notional investments in shares of fragrances and flavourings group Treaty and the CVS veterinary chain which have both succumbed to heavy profit since the start of summer after chalking up big gains earlier in the year.

Others now in danger of triggering sell signals under the stop-loss system include Lloyds Banking and theme parks operator Merlin Entertainments.

Most of our share recommendations suffered in a general markdown last week following moves to tighten credit controls by the Bank of England and hints that interest rates are set to rise over the autumn.

Our 2017 portfolio was particularly hard hit by a £240 drop in profits from its Treaty holding over the week with its total value down by a hefty 3.7 per cent when we carried out a review of progress on Wednesday morning.

The 2016 and 2014 selections also suffered with falls of around 2.0 per cent although the 2015 portfolio enjoyed a degree of protection through its large cash holdings and limited its setback to less than 1.0 per cent.

A handful of brighter spots included a rare rally in the price of Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG and a further small increase in Smiths Group to yet another peak valuation.