John Phelps’s portfolio

INVESTORS were given a midweek reality check as global share prices tumbled from recent peaks amid fresh concerns over President Donald Trump’s economic policies and the impact of rising inflation and interest rates.

Our own share tips escaped relatively lightly although the total value of our four portfolios was still down by just over 0.5 per cent when we carried out the usual weekly review of progress on Wednesday morning.

Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG was among the biggest casualties and we sold roughly half of our nominal holdings when the price dipped to its published stop-loss level.

It is likely that we will sell the remaining shares next week when we revert to tighter rules on sales for the latest 2017 portfolio after its three-month “settling in” period expires.

The shares have been hit by disappointing trading news and worries over potential disruption caused by the bank’s branch closure programme corner and brokers at Citigroup and Panmure Gordon are still advising clients to sell.

We also evicted model trains group Hornby from the 2016 portfolio after its share price fell back to the stop-loss target after a brief flurry of speculative interest.

Fortunately, there were a few shares which managed to move against the trend and the 2017 portfolio saw its value rise by 1.0 per cent over the week.

Similarly, a good rise in waste treatment specialist Renewi and solid performances from SSE and Whitbread helped cancel out the effects of CYBG weakness and a slippage in Lloyds Banking in the 2015 portfolio.

But both the 2016 and 2014 selections recorded falls of more than 1.0 per cent with supermarkets J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison suffering sharp falls as a result of concerns over the impact of inflation and potential interest rate hikes on household budgets.