John Phelps’s portfolio

OUR share tips enjoyed another good performance in the stock market last week with most recommendations scoring further advances.

But there was one glaring exception in the form of mining giant Anglo American which was ejected from our 2015 portfolio after its share price tumbled to our published stoploss level.

Its abrupt fall from grace followed publication of a sell note from influential brokers at Jefferies International who are concerned about the immediate future for metals prices while the company did not help with news of a 20 per cent slump in diamond production.

Our own disappointment was softened by the fact that we were still able to book notional profits of more than 20 per cent on the shares after holding them for less than two months.

We used a chunk of the proceeds on Wednesday morning when we reinvested in shares of paving slabs and building materials group Marshalls following a sharp fall in the price since the Brexit vote.

We accept that trading could be affected by any fall in consumer confidence in the coming months but the company makes most of its money from the public sector and big commercial contracts.

The Anglo American price fall meant that the 2015 portfolio saw its overall valuation shade 1.1 per cent when we carried out our usual midweek review despite gains for all the other constituents.

The loss was cancelled by an identical 1.1 per cent rise in the value of the 2016 list – which sported a gain of above 10 per cent for the first time – while the 2014 and 2016 selections also showed rises of around the 1.0 per cent mark.

Major companies earning most of their cash overseas were again at the fore as a result of the pound’s continuing weakness although our UK-biased Royal Mail also pushed ahead after scoring a solid set of trading results.