Monkey 2 dances with Sensex, but Monkey 1 stays hung over

Will 2012 be the year in which things turn around for Firstpost’s Monkey Portfolios? We certainly hope so.

The New Year certainly brought good tidings for Monkey portfolio 2, comprising 10 randomly picked stocks from the BSE 500, which pocketed a 2.67 percent gain at the end of the first week, matching the Sensex’s gains and only marginally lagging the Nifty, which was up 2.8 percent.

Maybe those boxing lessons, which Monkey 2 signed up for in late December to inject some extra aggression into its system, are starting to take effect!

However, Monkey portfolio 1, consisting of 10 randomly picked stocks from the BSE 100 , had a more subdued start as it added just 0.11 percent for the week ending 6 January, which was even lower than the 2.3 percent gain made by the brokers’ portfolio .

Rumour is, Monkey 1 is bit hungover with all the banana-plum cake he ate in the last week of December; he claims he had no idea plum cakes had alcohol in them. (Apparently, alchohol doesn’t go down very well with monkeys.)

In any case, both Monkey portfolios have been eking out small weekly gains since last month after enduring a losing streak earlier. Nevertheless, they have quite a long way to go before reclaiming their former title of rulers of the stock market.

For the period since 19 August, 2011, the date when all the portfolios were launched, the benchmark indices (Sensex and Nifty) remained the top performers, losing just 1.7-1.8 percent.

The next-best performer was the portfolio of stock market gurus, which shed 6.5 percent. Bhel was the biggest loser in their portfolio, down 26 percent ( view table ).

Monkey portfolio 1 was next, surrendering 8.5 percent ( view table ), while Monkey portfolio 2 came in last, erasing a steep 19.3 percent over the nearly four-and-a-half month period ( view table ).

Adani Enterprises was the biggest drag on Monkey portfolio 1, losing nearly 50 percent, while Monkey portfolio 2 was felled by KSK Ventures, which plunged 63 percent, and VIP Industries,which shed 50 percent.

Still, don’t write off the Monkeys just yet - over December, both of them have been giving their individual strategies a rethink - and lapping up new ideas to rejuvenate their portfolios.

Monkey 1 is devouring tales of the world’s most renowned investing gurus and trying to incorporate some of their practices (or so we hear), while Monkey 2 continues boxing lessons to lift his competitive instincts up a notch.

Firstpost can also reveal that both Monkey 1 and Monkey 2 held a secret meeting at the X’mas weekend and might be open to a joint media interview on what they think 2012 holds for investors.

We’ll keep you updated on that!

See you next week.