There are plenty of adjectives that I could use to describe the portfolio performance over the last week, none of them positive and few of them printable without the extensive use of asterisks! An extremely frustrating performance with the value of the portfolio declining as the market has continued to move upwards.

A few shares have moved higher but far too many have stayed static or declined. So I’ve gone back to the portfolio and started to assess each share, thinking about each position as if I didn’t hold already & to decide what action (buy, sell or hold) I should take.

Since the last update I’ve sold Southern Cross, (SCHE), 5000 shares gone at 124.4p for a £94 loss. It has done precisely nothing whilst the market has powered up and I’ve lost patience. A trading statement is due soon and I will look another look at it off the back of that.

I also cut my Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP) position last week. There are still plenty of sellers capping the share price in the 22/23p area but now there are some large trades going through so the stale holders are gradually being cleared out. The trading range of 20p/24p is still intact & on that basis I picked up 10,000 shares @ 19.75p on Monday morning (another 15k was left on the order book unfilled). I am happy to increase my holding at that level or below with the belief that downside is limited below 20p and that there are signs of commercial rental demand improving in India. £226.12 per pt was sold @ 22.5p netting £1058 profit and 10,000 shares bought back at 19.75p Now long £500 (i.e 50,000 shares) per pt and 10,000 shares.

Also being reduced is Dart Group (DTG), trimming the position by £50 per pt, sold @ 53p for a loss of £8.70. Now long £175 per pt. Again there is a persistent seller at 55p and little volume to clear them out, although there was some interest in the shares at the end of last week. Dart, the owners of airline Jet2.com, are due to report interim results on Thursday, 19 November and hopefully that will generate some buying interest as the share still looks cheap to me.

It hasn’t all been selling as I’ve topped up on a couple of tech plays that haven’t fully participated in the market strength over the last month. First up I added £10 per pt to my Telecity (TCY) position @ 337.6p first thing last Wednesday morning. Its moved up nicely since then and I expect it to go higher in anticipation of a bullish trading statement due in the next few weeks. It might look expensive on normal metrics but this is a clear leader in its field with a premium product and great revenue visibility. It deserves its high rating.

I added to my Laird position, getting £20 per pt @ 199.9p. This one can be very volatile and could easily be back at 190p by the end of the next trading session, or equally over 220p (hopefully). With that in mind I sold £10 per pt @ 214p to bank a small £140 profit and am happy to run the rest (total position is 5000 shares). Its struggled to get past the 220p level, so cracking that is the next step and could lead to some really good gains. KBC upgraded LRD to a buy on Monday with a price target of 260p, so I am expecting the trading statement due at the end of the month to be positive, there are expectations of a good bounce back in business since the start of the year, it also has a chunky dividend yield at this price.

The portfolio performance has been held back by recent weakness in RCG Holdings (RCG) which has fallen back from the high 80’s to the low 80’. As a long term hold I am ignoring these price fluctuations, as the gains could be very considerable from here with the share so lowly rated whilst business performance continues to impress.

Recent purchases, Geong (GNG) and Platinum Australia (PLAA), are helping offset the RCG weakness as they are both nicely in profit now. I’ve also increased my holdings in Eros International (EROS) and Leisure and Gaming (LNG) in recent days. Eros seems to be consolidating just below the 200p level that its failed to get over a couple of times recently, I am expecting it to have another go soon.

Leisure and Gaming’s (LNG) Q3 update last week impressed me, costs are firmly under control and it emerged from its weakest quarter with a small profit despite adverse sports betting results. These things always even themselves out and Q4 looks to have got off to a good start. I believe that business momentum will really pick up over the next six months and a simple buy & hold approach will see some very good rewards. I am looking for the share price to be in the mid 20p range come next summer, which would be a very satisfying 150% return from the current level.

I continue to review the positions I currently hold and there may be further sales over the rest of the week, I need to get the recent under performance to the market turned around quickly.