DIM SUM PORTFOLIO: Ain't so great after 1 year

Well, our dim sum portfolio, comprising a diverse range of stock picks, hasn't proven to be sizzling thus far.

After nearly a year of existence, the portfolio has returned a 1.7% loss compared to a 3.9% gain by the ST Index.

The 16 stock ideas came from 11 investors, hence it's a dim sum meal made up of various risk profiles, various return potential, etc. 

But all are supposed to be "tasty" for some reason or other, and a few hold the promise of sizzling returns.

Here's how the stocks did and, boy, were there a number of big disappointments:

The top gainers were:

♦ Tawana Resources (+60.4%) -- an ASX-listed lithium miner whose Bald Hill project has become the first Australian mine to produce lithium concentrate since 2016.

Tawana and its JV partner, Singapore-listed Alliance Mineral Assets, are headed for a merger in Sept 2018 with a pro-forma market cap of around S$450 million. 

Tawana and Alliance Mineral Assets are 50-50 JV partners at the Bald Hill lithium & tantalum mine, Western Australia.
Photo: Shaun Clark/LinkedIn
♦ Nordic Group (+37%) -- a service provider to several oil majors in Singapore. Nordic has won investors over with its consistent 20% earnings growth in recent years.

The big disappointments were Del Monte (-43%) and SunMoon (-47%). Both, coincidentally, are in the fresh fruit business.

Of course, whatever the gains and losses, they are not permanent. The million-dollar question: Which loss-making stocks might yet prove to be big winners?