John Phelps’s portfolio

OUR share tips enjoyed another good all-round performance on the back of a stronger stock market last week with all four investment portfolios sporting further gains when we carried out our usual review on Wednesday morning.

The overwhelming majority of recommendations managed some sort of rise with foreign currency earners such as Smiths, Merlin, Treatt, Renewi and Micro Focus enjoying fresh support after a jump in the value of the euro on hopes of a victory for moderates in the French presidential election.

Easily the best showing came from our 2016 portfolio which saw all six recommendations move higher to help its overall valuation increase by more than 5.0 per cent over the week.

Veterinary chain CVS was the star performer with an 8.0 per cent rise while Dundee-registered textiles group Low & Bonar and the Legoland-to-Madame Tussauds entertainments concern were not far behind.

The 2017 selections also reached another record valuation although the total gain was limited to a modest 0.5 per cent as a dip in the price of water treatment group Pennon cancelled out much of the gains recorded by the other recommendations.

It was a similar story for the 2015 list which also managed only a fractional rise despite another good increase in the value of Anglo-Dutch waste treatment group Rewnewi and returns to profitability by former loss-making investments in Unilever and Lloyds.

The main culprit was Perthbased SSE and we sold our notional holding at a loss after the share price fell back to our published stop-loss as a result of government threats to introduce new price controls for the energy sector. We were reluctant sellers because of the group’s generous dividend policy and longer-term investors may prefer to hold on. But we make it a rule to sell any share which has fallen 10 per cent from previous peaks.