A recovery in the fortunes of CBT Systems helped Mr Ken Knightly from Pine Valley Park in Rathfarnham, to win the weekly prize of £1,000 and a year's free dealing with Goodbodys.

Mr Knightly, who works for a telecommunications company, said he realised that recent falls in CBT's share price could not last forever and there had to be an upside at some stage.

Luckily for him it came last week when CBT rose by almost 19 per cent. This gave his Q's Best portfolio a 124 per cent increase and he now resides at 246 in the overall leaderboard. He says he has come from a position in "the thousands" and hopes his rise up the board hasn't stopped yet.

He adds that his success last week has given him a taste for investing in the real market and he hopes to start this with a flutter on the upcoming flotation of Telecom Eireann.

The volatility of the markets at present is illustrated in the changes on the overall leader board where last week's leader, Mr Anthony Burns, has fallen from No 1 position to 13 this week. The new leader (portfolio number 12705), who has no portfolio name, was not even in the top 50 last week.

Mr Burns, who had Arcon in his portfolio last week, would have witnessed that company's fortunes crash through the floor this week. After announcing pre-tax losses of €10.4 million (£8.19 million), the shares slipped by 12.5 per cent.

While many Irish stocks did well in last week's competition, this week was a different matter for many. Greencore, Waterford Wedgwood, Kerry and Anglo Irish Bank were among those moving in the wrong direction.

In terms of gainers, the property group, Dunloe Ewart was one of the big winners of the week. The payment by British Land of £33.5 million (€42.54 million) for a 50 per cent stake in Dunloe's Cherrywood site in Co Dublin is regarded as being the main reason for the rise. The £33.5 million bid for the stake in Cherrywood put a higher value on the site than many people had estimated, according to market sources.

Those with portfolios focusing heavily on stocks quoted in New York suffered again last week. Elan Corporation once again took a dive, with a statement from chairman and chief executive officer, Mr Donal Geaney, failing to stop the rot.

It was down by more than 13 per cent, while Iona Technologies continued to be punished and was back by 8.7 per cent. One of the giants of the telecommunications world - MCI WorldCom Inc - found the going tough and dropped by 7.6 per cent.