John Phelps’s portfolio

OUR share tips took a breather after their recent heady run, with the total value of the four investment portfolios registering a tiny gain of less than 0.1 per cent over the week when we carried out our usual review on Wednesday morning.

There were some impressive gains by a few shares but overall progress was held back by profit-taking in the likes of Smiths Group, Treatt, Segro, Low & Bonar and Devro as some investors decided it could pay to put cash in the bank with the FTSE 100 share index hovering around all-time peaks.

The profit-taking was not unexpected at this level although we were a little more concerned with further falls in one or two of our more disappointing recommendations. Our tip for Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG racked up a further loss for the 2017 portfolio after disappointment with its latest trading bulletin, and our notional holding in Smart Metering Systems moved into deficit on gossip that some of its older devices might not be compatible with a new data communications system.

Technological giant Micro Focus was also out of favour after brokers at Credit Suisse said the shares would underperform and it is now in danger of triggering a sell signal under our stop-loss system.

But the losers were balanced by gains among companies which earn their cash in domestic markets after Barclays suggested currency fears may have been overdone.

Supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Morrisons benefited from the warm weather which should boost sales of high-margin fresh salads while the weather also helped aggregates and cement supplier Breedon.

Whitbread pushed towards new peaks as buyers scurried to buy the shares before they began trading without the benefit of the latest 65.9p a share dividend last Thursday. Dividend expectations gave a similar boost to water treatment group Pennon after directors announced they were lifting the payout by a further seven per cent.