More additions to the portfolio

The loan money came through late last night, so I was able to add to the portfolio this morning. It arrived just in time, as my failure to sell any existing shares meant my SIPP starter money had come from my bank account, and with 7 days until payday it was getting perilously low. Now it's much healthier.

First off I added £2,600 to the SIPP and purchased the following

HGM:Highland Gold Mining. 2,000 shares at 53.35p costing £1,078.95. Gold is rock bottom but I don't believe for a minute this can continue. Three years ago these shares were trading at 200p before sliding all the way down to 40p in August. Since then they've been recovering gradually despite gold still suffering. When the inevitable turn-around happens, I have high hopes for these shares. Even if the share price doesn't recover for a while, they pay excellent dividends.

UTW:Utilitywise. 1,000 shares at 141p costing £1,421.95. Utilitywise is a business service provider. Basically energy consultancy, which in a time when everyone is trying to use less of it would seem to be a growth area. Profits are up by over 20% a year and they pay a reasonable dividend, but inexplicably their share price has been dropping from nearly 400p in early 2014. I can't understand why. It looks like a good growth company with healthy finances and a market for which there is growing demand. Needless to say, after buying this morning the price dropped by 10% - grr!!

Next I added £4,200 to the share account and bought the following

PAF:Pan African Resources. 20,000 shares at 7.6732p plus £7.67 stamp duty costing £1,554.26. For the same reason as Highland Gold Mining, now seems to be a good time to get into gold. There was also an imperative to buy these quick, as it's ex-dividend day tomorrow and it's a healthy dividend indeed. I stand to make more from the dividend of these shares than I will from my best return after selling stock. I just hope that any transactions that need to happen to secure these have been completed before the cutoff, as I don't know if it's from the moment you do the deal, or whether money has to have changed hands. As mine is still sitting in my bank account, albeit not available, I'm hoping I got them in time. If these go up to just 12p I'll make £800 so quite excited.

LOOK:Lookers. 800 shares at 173.64p plus £6.95 stamp duty costing £1,408.02. I already had some of these which I bought at 179p so the chance to increase my holding at a cheaper price was irresistible. I liked them lots at 179p so I like them even more now.

GVC:GVC Holdings. 300 shares at 399.7499p costing £1,211.20. GVC is a bit like Playtech which I already hold. I believe this is a mega growth area and they seem underpriced. Their share price has been falling since late 2014 but their profits are rocketing and they pay an excellent dividend. They lit up every field in my spreadsheet green, so I had to buy some. It also looks like they may be about to take over another big company, so their growth could become even more impressive soon.

So, Friday's weekly summary will be even more confusing now. Clearly my performance will have dropped off badly. Lots of new spread and commission, and today was a disaster for the rest of my portfolio. Where the hell's this so-called Santa rally?!