Steady rather than spectacular. That's the verdict to date on the performance of Investors Chronicle's , the collection of eight disparate shares featured in the magazine of 7 January that we reckoned could do good things in 2011.
'Good' rather than 'great' was our adjective of choice because this year we did something different – we split up the eight by investment style. So, some of them – our blue-sky tip of the year (Chariot Oil & Gas) or our growth stock of the year (NCC), for example – might have been expected to motor. Others, however, were more likely to produce a stolid performance; the likes of our income stock of the year (Aviva) or our 'old reliable' pick (Tesco). As a result, the average of all eight would inevitably be good rather than great.
However, the average of the eight has outstripped the performance of the FTSE All-Share index. On an offer-to-bid basis (ie, the actual prices at which investors could have been able to buy and sell), the average price of the eight is up 6 per cent. Over the same period, the All-Share, which isn't encumbered by bid and offer prices, has risen just 1 per cent.