Warwick Academy team StockClimbers are living up to their name by maintaining a commanding lead in the KPMG Senior School Investment Challenge.

By the end of March, the team had turned their original virtual investment of $100,000 into $115,255.50 — representing a return of more than 15 per cent over the last five months.

The impressive performance has given the StockClimbers a lead of more than $7,000 over their closest challengers with just a few weeks remaining in the six-month challenge.

Moving up a place into second spot was Bermuda High School team SHE, who managed to grow their portfolio by $2,560 during the month to end with a portfolio value of $108,194.61.

Also moving up one spot into third was the Berkeley Institute team Pharma 6 Market, who gained more than $2,460 during the month to close on $107,766.32 and stay hard on the heels of SHE.

The Saltus team Mint Miltons was one of the month’s star performers. During March, their portfolio value increased by $3,887 or 3.8 per cent. That was a market-trouncing performance when one considers that over the same period, the S&P 500 Index posted a 1.79 per cent gain.

The gains were enough for Mint Miltons to jump from ninth to fourth in the standings, with a total of $106,298.51.

The Berkeley Institute team Stack or Starve maintained their fifth place in the standings, gaining more than $1,000 during the month to close with a value of $106,080.93. It means that Berkeley is the only school with two teams in the top five.

Neritic, a Mount Saint Agnes team, also kept their hold on sixth position.

There are 20 school teams competing in the challenge, and each has been given an imaginary $100,000 to invest in the stock market over a six-month period. At the end of the contest, the top-three teams will win cash prizes for their school, to be used for educational initiatives.

Other schools participating in this year’s challenge include CedarBridge Academy, Bermuda Institute and Impact Mentoring.

• For more information on the KPMG Investment Challenge, visit https://goo.gl/u4SotK