Sharetrack 100 is starting to look like a family affair. This week's prize of £1,000 in cash and a year's free share dealing goes to Charles Kingston, son of William, who topped the leader board in week four, and brother of Christopher, who has frequently made the Top 50. Must be in the blood.
Charles, who works in sales and marketing for Bio-Medical Research, decided to adopt an aggressive approach to the competition and narrowed his portfolio down to a single stock. His punt on Joe Moran's industrial holding group IWP International paid off handsomely last week, rewarding him with a 19 per cent increase in his portfolio although he only narrowly pipped the previous weekly winner Mr Eoin Barry to the post.
And yes, to all of you who spotted last week's unfortunate glitch, it was impossible to notch up a 22 per cent gain in a week when the biggest riser was up by 13 per cent. So Mr Barry becomes last week's winner, qualifying for the year's free share dealing and the £1,000 cash prize. Sorry Mr Barry, but better late than never!
Mr Patrick Aylward, however, does not go away empty-handed. In addition to a consolation cash prize, he gets a year's free share dealing through AIB.
Meanwhile, Dr Edward Staunton is back in the overall top spot and is now sporting no less than 13 portfolios in the Top 50. However, a few other regulars - such as Mr Andrew Nixon, Mr Gerry Hogan and Mr William Kingston - are hanging onto a number of Top 50 spots and with six weeks left to go, the race remains wide open.
And so to those who have yet to make the leaderboard. A free polo shirt should be on its way to Mr Albert Allison of Blackrock, Co Dublin whose wife's penchant for house-keeping led her to throw out the note - hidden under his pillow - setting out his investments and even his portfolio number. Unable to check up his entry by phone, Albert has been waiting in vain to see his portfolio appear in the leader board so we're sending him a shirt to console him in the meantime.
Mr Harvey Hillis in Wexford also gets a polo shirt - as Ms Betty O'Brien and Ms Rosemary Byrne, his colleagues at CPM Europe Limited, are both sporting them, we feel he shouldn't be left out. And we still have some shirts left for those who are losing theirs provided they write to us at Sharetrack 100, The Irish Times, 11/15 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2.
Cadbury Schweppes is the latest company to announce a stock split. The split, which became effective from May 24th, means all holders of the stock will be given double the amount at half the price.
