TD clients turn to oil and gas

Stuart Welch, CEO, TD Direct Investing comments: "New entrants dominated TD's top ten most popular buys and sells this week, with a total of seven appearing across our tables. Although Barclays (BARC) remained the top buy for the third week in a row, there appeared to be a heavy emphasis on resource stocks among our clients with Xcite Energy (XEL) jumping nine places to lead an oil and gas 1-2-3 in the sells. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 dropped slightly to close the week ending Monday 16 July at 5662.43.

"Xcite Energy took pole position on this week's sells table and appeared in second place on the buys after reporting last Wednesday (11 July) that preliminary flow test operations on the Bentley oil field in the North Sea were ‘progressing well'.

"Rockhopper Exploration Plc (RKH) entered the buys and sells tables in fourth and second places respectively; TD clients trading the stock at a ratio of 1:1 following Premier Oil Plc's (PMO) announcement that they were paying $231m for a 60% stake in Rockhopper's licence in the Falkland Islands.

"Fellow new entrant to both tables - Borders & Southern Petroleum Plc (BOR) - took third in the buys and sixth in the sells with a buy:sell ratio of 2.3:1. The company saw its share price drop almost 70% during the week ending Monday (16 July) following news that it will abandon its Stebbing exploratory well in the South Falkland basin.

"Another oil and gas explorer, Afren Plc (AFR), entered the buys table in 10th place amid takeover speculation, finishing 10.3p up in the week ending Monday (16 July) at 115.055p."

The value of your investments can go down as well as up. You may not get back all the funds that you invest.

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