The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday, Dec. 30, edition that its Megastar portfolio outperformed the market by 9.4 percentage points since last year. The Globe's Norman Rothery writes that E-L Financial has been added to this year's Megastar portfolio. It is one of The Globe's top 20 picks. E-L Financial is an investment and insurance holding company that controls Empire Life Insurance and owns a 37-per-cent interest in shipping company Algoma Central. E-L Financial is based in Toronto and recently completed a substantial issuer bid to buy back about 2.55 per cent of its shares. It also has a pleasing habit of issuing large special dividends every few years. While the company's stock is thinly traded, The Globe gives it five stars for momentum and value. EQB is another stock that was added to this year's portfolio. EQB is headquartered in Toronto and owns Equitable Bank. The company had a good year, with its shares climbing 51 per cent to trade near 1.2 times book value. While the bank offers a relatively modest dividend yield of 1.9 per cent, it increased its quarterly dividend by 21 per cent over the past year.