Yoga Girls slicker than the City

AMATEUR investment clubs meeting in pubs and village halls are beating City professionals at their own game.

A survey has found that the average investment club's portfolio has risen by 6% in the past year. This is in sharp contrast to a 1.5% fall in the FTSE 100 Index in the same period or even the 2% gain in the FTSE All-Share Index.

One of the best-performing clubs in recent years has been the Fyg Leaf Investment club from Peterborough.

It started as a yoga class for women - Fenland Yoga Girls (Fyg) - but went on to become the Investment Club Of The Year 2002.

Treasurer Beverley Meekings said the club was still performing well. 'The start of the year was not terribly good, but we picked up in July and August.'

Meekings attributes the club's success to the members all being women. She said: 'We may be slightly more conservative than men. We are only interested in investing in companies if we understand what they do.'

The club's last investment was in Marks & Spencer. 'It is expanding its excellent food business and I think it has pulled round from its poor performance in ladies' fashions in the past year,' said Meekings.

The survey of 1,500 clubs was carried out as part of a major relaunch of the investment club movement.

ProShare, a not-for-profit organisation promoting share ownership, formed ProShare Investment Clubs (PIC) in 1992 to encourage investors to band together to share research and investment tips.

PIC is to be relaunched with online financial information company Digital Look, which will take over the management of the movement.

The relaunch will include a dedicated website - www. proshareclubs.co.uk - containing research and company information from Digital Look and the setting-up of a national register of all club members. This is thought to total about 100,000 people in 12,000 clubs.