Stock Guru: Investors with the X factor

A tiny New Capital Market (NCM) stock which has since moved to the new AX secondary board, retail services company RetailX, chosen by five of the 358 contestants, has helped to propel four of their portfolios into the top four places of the inaugural Stock Guru Game by the end of the first week.

RetailX shares leapt from 12 cents to 22 cents in the week, but even after such a spectacular rise, the company’s market capitalisation is just $683,540. Its latest results for the six months ended September last year, announced in late November, was a $169,000 net loss.

The fifth contestant to pick the stock had the misfortune to have included three of the week’s big loser’s in their portfolio as well, weed killer manufacturer Certified Organics, down 29%, biotech company Blis Technologies, down 23.5%, and Sealegs Corp, the latest incarnation of the former IT Capital, down 26.5%. The latest news from Sealegs, which makes amphibious boats, was that a proposed joint venture to sell the boats in the Middle East had collapsed. Those unlucky choices had that contestant, code-named BigFish, ranked 88th.

The leading contestant, with the non-committal moniker WN, had the good fortune to pick another rather obscure stock, Pure New Zealand, which has fingers in a number of pies including "nutriceuticals" and recycling and which has recently talked about getting into gold mining and buying a merchant bank.

Pure’s shares were up 25% over the week. The leading portfolio did suffer one disappointment: retailer Brisco Group’s shares fell 4.4% in the week. Its shares have been in decline since early January.

Early this month, Brisco confirmed market fears that it didn’t have a very good Christmas, same-store sales in the three months ended January dropping 3%.

The 114 contestants who picked New Zealand’s largest listed stock, Telecom, for their portfolios saw it gain a modest 0.72% over the week while the next most favoured stock, The Warehouse Group, fell 8.5% after announcing that although sales rose 14.3% in the 13 weeks ended February 1, its profit margins had suffered.

Certified Organics proved a bummer for the three worst performing portfolios. It’s had a roller coaster ride this month, the shares jumping from around the 8 cents level in late January to a peak of 14 cents, only to fall back to 9.7 cents by the end of last week. The Stock Exchange queried the company about the rise but the company said it couldn’t explain it.

The leading portfolio (of a notional $10,000) gained $2259.88 over the week while the worst performing lost $1707.13.

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