Paul Hill: How my share tips have done

It's been another horrendous half-year for the stock markets. Paul Hill looks back over his stock picks to find out which have been winners and which have been losers.

The second half of 2011 has been dominated by risk-aversion among investors. This is why prices of safe-haven British, German and US government bonds have climbed steeply. By contrast, the FTSE 100 and Aim indices have fallen 6% and 21% respectively for the 12 months ending 18 November. This safety-first preference has hit many of my Buys' and Gambles of the week' which have declined by an average of 11% and 16%.

It hasn't all been bad news, though. Cobol software specialist Micro Focus (hold) is up 32%, while housebuilder Galliford Try rose 72% both on the back of improved results. Cable & Wireless Worldwide, the telecoms and data hosting supplier, has continued to disappoint (down 67%). It should be benefiting from the introduction of web-based cloud computing, yet it has markedly underperformed its rivals.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.