Our shares tips returned to the growth tack last week with three of our four portfolios recording near identical gains of around 1.5 per cent when we carried out our review of progress on Wednesday morning.
The 2013 list was the one exception with its overall valuation virtually unchanged after a slippage in cash-and-carry specialist Booker cancelled out small gains elsewhere.
Nearly all of our recommendations made some progress over the week although Dairy Crest stood out with a particularly big rise after competition authorities nodded through the planned sale of its dairy business to Muller.
Above average gains were also recorded by National Grid on vague rumours of a de-merger of its US interests and by Reckitt Benckiser after directors hoisted growth forecasts by 5 per cent.
Edinburgh-based medical software group Craneware was another which outperformed to continue a run which has seen the shares add 10 per cent since last month's results presentation.
The overall performance persuaded us dip into our notional cash reserves on Wednesday to make purchases of shares in plastics and packaging group Essentra and precision engineer IMI Immediate prospects for both companies have been hit by the slump in the US shale gas industry where Essentra supplies plastic pipe protection and IMI sells the pumps and valves need for extraction.
But we believe that is already discounted in their share prices which have suffered sharp falls since the summer while both Colin Day at Essentra and ex-Weir boss Mark Selway have taken tough action to mitigate the damage and have been seeking out new income sources.
In the meantime, investors can take comfort from strong cash flow and good dividend yields.
We accept that both shares are more speculative than our usual selections in view of the current problems faced by the UK industrial sector which appears likely to see the demise of Scotland's steel industry.
As a result we have set a particularly tight stop-loss level-some 7 per cent below the current share price—at which we advise followers to consider selling on any significant relapse.
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