We took swift action to erase catering giant Compass from our list of share tips on Wednesday morning when directors produced an unappetising trading update which detailed the impact of the strong pound on overseas earnings together with news of a slowdown in demand from emerging nations.

The bulletin sent the shares into ragged retreat, triggering a sell signal under our stop loss system, and we immediately ditched our notional investments which were held in both the 2015 and 2013 portfolios.

We were reluctant sellers as we believe the company continues to offer good long term value but we cannot see any immediate return to popularity in the current economic climate and will be looking to reinvest the proceeds elsewhere in coming weeks.

Most of our other share tips suffered to a lesser degree last week as the stock market fell back to new lows for the year with the total value of our four portfolios down by approaching 2.0 per cent when we carried out our mid-week review of progress.

The 2015 list was the biggest casualty with a hefty 2.7 per cent fall while the long-running 2012 portfolio continued to out-perform with a modest 0.4 per cent slippage and the 2014 and 2013 selections shed 1.0 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

There were a few brighter spots with engineering consultant Ricardo gaining from a new drive into railways work, Dairy Crest responding to hopes of an early disposal of its Dairies operation and mental health specialist Cambian benefiting from stockbroker recommendations.

Glasgow's Smart Metering Systems also pushed higher ahead of its interim results on September 2 and the shares are now more than 10% above the level at which chief executive Alan Foy sold £3.5 million worth a fortnight ago.

In contrast, social housing and home nursing group Mears continued to slide ahead of results on August 16 when activists expect to hear more news on its controversial contract for North Lanarkshire which was renegotiated at a reported cost of £25m to the local council.

Followers will also expect to hear of the group's plans to cope with the impact of the living wage on its cost base.