Award for investors of St. Mary’s

Award for investors of St. Mary’s

14 March 2013

A TEAM of eight business studies students from St. Mary’s High School has won this year’s Investec Wealth and Investment/Business Telegraph School Share competition.

The competition attracted a total of 36 post-primary schools from all over Northern Ireland with the local girls using their expertise to come out on top.

The St. Mary’s students had a notional sum of £100,000 to invest in stocks registered on the FTSE 350 Stock Market and made some important strategic decisions at the outset of the competition in early October, investing their money in 10 companies.

Every month, the girls had to make decisions on whether to buy or sell shares from their portfolio. Some share prices rose in value, whilst others fell and some external factors had a detrimental effect on their portfolio, while an increase in some retail sales boosted it.

The St. Mary’s students also closely monitored share prices on a daily basis to ensure the best decisions were taken.

The aim of the competition was for the students to manage their portfolio of shares to maximise their initial investment and increase its value beyond that of the other schools in the competition.

The girls from St Mary’s became the leaders in the fourth week of the competition and while there were some setbacks during the four months it ran over, they amassed a 25% return on their portfolio, managing to even outperform the 8% rise in the value of the FTSE 350 index since the start of the competition.

Despite the efforts of the other competitors, there was no catching the students from St Mary’s and when trading closed on February 15, the Downpatrick students were deserving winners, claiming the first prize of £500 of Amazon gift vouchers.

The girls and their teachers Mrs. Joan Curley, Head of Business, and Ms. Marie Walls were delighted with their performance and are already looking forward to next year’s competition. The St Mary’s team members were Orla Byrne, Mary Collett, Sarah Louise Devlin, Caren McCartan, Niamh McDonald, Sarah Rafferty, Katrina Reynolds and Amy Smyth.