A GROUP of teenagers has proved they have what it takes to make it in the world of finance.

The team of five 15-year-olds from Sunnydale Comprehensive School, in Shildon, finished top in a fantasy fund competition against 28 schools in the North-East.

The team - David Harbottle, John Merchant, Peter Duce, Trevor Johnson and Leon James - was given an imaginary £100,000 to invest in shares and finished with a profit of £14,410, outperforming the FTSE 100 Index by 15 per cent over the 16 weeks of the competition.

Their success has won the school £2,000-worth of computer equipment.

The competition was run by stockbroking firm Gerrards in association with The Northern Echo's sister paper, The Darlington and Stockton Times.

Les Dobson, who teaches entrepreneurship at the school, said: "As individuals they had previously taken part in a stock market challenge run by the National Foundation for the Teaching of Entrepeneurship, so using market reports to buy and sell shares wasn't new to them.

"But their performance in this competition, where every decision was made by the whole team, has been outstanding."