Too close to call with finishing line in sight

As we head into the final week of Sharetrack, it is almost too close to call at the top of the overall leaderboard. A real two-way battle has developed between Ms Jean Boulvin's Last Trade and Mr John Leahy's Highland portfolios.

With an overall value of 2,841,217, Last Trade has regained the top spot it lost to Highland in the previous week. But is its lead of 25,375 enough to see it through to the final? Or can Highland once again take first place?

Both contestants have other portfolios in the top 10 that could also have a bearing on the result. Ms Boulvin is well-placed with Not Another Cut in third, while Mr Leahy has two portfolios, On the Up and Last Chance, in fifth and sixth positions.

But can fourth-placed Mr Michael McDonagh's Bear Foot in The Park, already a weekly winner in the competition, cause an upset and clinch the number one spot? There is still all to play for. An overall first prize of £15,000 (€19,060) awaits the winner, while second place will be awarded £7,000. The third placed finisher will receive £3,000.

Sharetrack 100 veteran Mr Charles Kingston can thank the performance of oil stock Providence Resources for clinching the weekly prize last week with his Iridium portfolio.

Continuing its yo-yo performance, Providence, having been the previous week's worst peforming stock, posted a massive 33.33 per cent gain last week. Hardware technology company Dell was ranked second, while Fyffes, which made steady progress throughout the week, was placed third. The minor placings were made up by hardware technology company EMC and Internet technology company Amazon.com.

"There's no doubt that some of the smaller stocks perform bigger leaps. In the case of Providence, it was quite fortunate and it helped to have a big 33.3 per cent leap. It's very difficult to find that in some of the more highly capitalised companies," said Mr Kingston.

He said he was also lucky to have Fyffes in his portfolio, which recorded an impressive 31.64 per cent rise last week.

Mr Kingston has already picked up a prize in this year's competition, as well as being a weekly winner last year and the year before.

Having won twice with Iridium and having two portfolios in the top ten, Neptune and Alexandria, he said he is very pleased with the performance of his portfolios.

The worst performing table contained three software technology companies, Baltimore at the bottom of the pile, Horizon and Datalex, with bank stock Miller Fisher, and Independent News & Media.

Contestants can stay informed by visiting the Sharetrack 100 sections on the www.ireland.com and www.goodbody.ie websites.