In an impressive performance attributed to oil company Providence Resources, Mr Frank Cooke's aptly named Top Stocks portfolio topped last week's leaderboard.
Providence Resources' share price, one of the previous week's worst-performing stocks, rose by 20 per cent by the end of trading last Friday, helping to raise the value of the holding.
No sector dominated last week's top-performing shares. The five best shares were from different sectors - oil, food, pharmaceuticals, property/ building materials and media. The hardware technology sector continued its poor run of form.
EMC and Lucent, among the worst-performing shares in the previous week, found themselves propping up the table of the five worst-performing shares last week. They were joined by another hardware technology company, Cisco, with Internet technology company Yahoo and pharmaceutical business Trinity Biotech completing the table.
With a rise of 15.78 per cent on the week, Mr Cooke's Top Stocks edged out Mr Bill Dowling's Eureka portfolio by 0.66 per cent to put in the best performance of the week.
A bit of profit-taking from some tech stocks judiciously reinvested in Providence was Mr Cooke's winning strategy.
He said his reasons were twofold. "The backdrop for the oil sector, at least in the short-term, looks fairly favourable with oil prices creeping up. Also, the volatility on the lower-priced shares is larger. To get the weekly prize, you have to go for the more volatile stocks."
The Kilkenny-born, now Stillorgan-based, fund manager says Sharetrack allows him to make gambles which investment managers could not do in real life, particularly when it comes to going for the weekly prize.
"You can take wild speculative risks with no downside. In real life, you have to worry about the downsides. What will I lose?"
Mr Cooke is going to use part of his winnings on another gamble - placing a bet on Kilkenny in the hurling match against Offaly next Sunday. Ranked at 343, Top Stocks is well outside the overall top-performing portfolios. The overall leaderboard is becoming increasingly dominated by Ms Joan Boulvin.
Her Last Trade portfolio has moved into the number one spot overall, up from third place the previous week. A second portfolio, 1929 Again 1 jumped from number eight to number two last week. Both portfolios have topped the two million value barrier, the first to do so.
While Ms Boulvin says she is happy with the performance of her portfolios, she is still remaining cautious about her chances at this stage.
"It's a week to week thing. I'm happy enough, but these things change," she said.
A further three of Ms Boulvin's portfolios are placed in the top 10. Third place last week was occupied by Mr Sean Connolly's John portfolio. Also making an impression in the top 10 was Mr John Leahy with Highland at number five and On The Up at number seven. Contestants can stay informed throughout the competition by visiting the Sharetrack 100 sections on the www.ireland.com and www.goodbody.ie websites.
