Derek Pain: Solace in rum and cakes as the market dishes out a drubbing

Only two of Derek's recent portfolio additions have made headway: Patisserie and Distil

Patisserie, the cake shop and casual dining group, has proved to be a sweet investment

The No Pain, No Gain portfolio has suffered from the stock market's disastrous performance. Its profit, excluding dividends, has dwindled by £14,000 or so to around £136,000 – its lowest quarterly result for 18 months.

I am not surprised by the decline. My outstanding constituents have lost ground and four of my most recent recruits have fallen into the red.

In the past year I have enlisted no fewer than seven shares. Such a frantic burst of activity is foreign to the portfolio, but takeovers had eliminated some of my stocks and I had also decided that a number of under-performers should be given the heave-ho. I believe that 15 or 16 is the ideal spread for a small investor, and so I needed to get back up to strength. My in-and-out action has left the enlarged portfolio with a cash kitty of more than £25,000.

In the short term, my rush to reinforce the portfolio was clearly mistimed. The stock market has been a dismal place. From a peak of more than 7,100 points last April, the benchmark Footsie index has been in ragged retreat, falling to near 5,500 at one time.

Only two of my recent additions have made headway: Patisserie, the cake shop and casual dining group; and Distil, the drinks company being revived by Don Goulding, a former managing director at the drinks giant Diageo. The smallest quoted player in the fiercely competitive spirits and liqueur industry announced a cash-raising share placing, with, remarkably, the shares being issued at above the market price. Consequently, they caught up and overtook the then stock market level of 0.85p to rest at 1.02p – against a 1p placing level.

Distil, with such brands as RedLeg spiced rum, Blackwoods gin and its original Blavod black vodka, will pull in £626,000 as a result of the share issue. The cash will be spent on marketing and "further brand innovations".

One of the participants in the share issue has been Miton UK MicroCap Trust, which now has 10 per cent of Distil's capital

Whitbread, once around 5,500p, has suffered a sad retreat. The shares have been as low as 3,641p with worries multiplying about a slowdown in sales growth at the leisure group's successful Costa Coffee offshoot, as well as concerns in some quarters that its Premier Inn budget hotel chain is feeling the cold draught of competition.

However, some analysts have decided Whitbread is worth holding at the lower level. Among them is Ian Rennardson at investment house Jefferies, who wonders whether the share decline could prompt the hive-off of the Costa Coffee operation, and Wyn Ellis at stockbroker Numis, who has trimmed the 2017 profits forecast from £609m to £598m.

I am astonished that Lloyds Banking Group remains below my buying level. In these low interest rate days, I would have thought a bank yielding around 5 per cent would enjoy a much higher price. Clearly the company is keen to return to its proud days, before the financial crisis erupted, when it was a safe haven for dividends.

True, the shares have recovered somewhat from when the price was down to near 55p. But with most savers enduring a range of pathetic returns on their money, the lack of interest in Lloyds must be surprising.

My last recruit, Eclectic, the bars chain, has been silent since I enlisted the shares. It is being revamped under serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson and is due to announce interim figures soon.