THE stock of the Royal Grammar School rose after its students won prizes in a national investment competition.

RGS students took home two awards for their efforts, tackling the cut-throat world of stock exchange and business economics.

The pupils beat off more than 30,000 pupils from schools nationwide to pick up the awards.

Students from the school, in Amersham Road, High Wycombe, received their first award, winning first place in the Online Trader of the Year category.

They outsmarted City traders at share investing, to make a huge 53 per cent gain on their original £100,000 pseudo investment.

Their second award of the evening was a third place in the national final of the Portfolio Challenge.

For this they had to demonstrate their stock-selecting skills, justify their decisions and deliver a presentation on the importance of investor education in primary schools.

The competition resulted from an initiative by City institutions to bring financial education into schools.

Sophie Morris, education manager for competition sponsors ifsProShare, said: "Financial education should be introduced as widely and as early as possible. The success of the competition demonstrates that there is a greater awareness and understanding of fin-ancial concepts in the classroom.

"Teachers have found our resource pack effective in delivering financial education to their pupils."

The team of RGS boys, named Elite Investments, won £1,000 in prize money.

First place in the Portfolio Challenge went to Astley Community High School and second place went to Whitley Bay and Highgate School from London.