DORSET students who turned their hand to stockpicking have done 12 times better than the FTSE.

Students at Ferndown Upper School saw their theoretical portfolio soar by 60.9 per cent over five months.

It made the FTSE 100's 4.72 per cent gain over the same period look decidedly lacklustre.

Ferndown Upper scooped £500 as winning team in the investment challenge run by Lymington-based Thesis Asset Management.

Much of their success was down to having online auction QXL Ricardo in their portfolio - its share price rose from 344p to 1573p during the contest.

Runners-up were the Stockless team from Poole Grammar School who put all their eggs in one basket - BSkyB - which outperformed the indices with a gain of 13.6 per cent.