Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 5 January 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: At the end of last year, TD Waterhouse conducted a survey measuring Investor Confidence in the UK. The results indicated that confidence in the FTSE index was at a record high with 79% of investors anticipating that the UK stock market will perform well in next 12 months.

True to form, the FTSE has started 2007 on a six year high, mostly buoyed by strong trading on the high street over the Christmas period. Recent figures released from Experian’s Retail FootFall Index showed shopper visits to stores rose 6.9 percent on Boxing Day from a year ago. Following this overall trend, Tesco’s shares have reached an all-time high of 414.50p up over 26% on last year and reports show that sales have been especially strong online, up 30% in the lead up to Christmas, when 1.3 million shoppers used Tesco.com.

Continuing on this positive note, the banking sector has had a sterling start to 2007; The Royal Bank of Scotland’s share price increased 1.9% as analysts forecast a strong year for the bank. Other banks in the top 10, Barclays and Lloyds TSB also saw an increase in their share price. There has been mounting speculation that Lloyds TSB will sign the first sponsorship deal for the London 2012 Olympics in a deal estimated to be worth 80 million pounds; Lloyds will be expecting to gain a considerable return on its investment through the huge exposure it should receive.

Elsewhere, it has been a disappointing start to the year for the mining industry as the sector has been struck by rising stock piles and a market glut causing copper prices to drop to a nine month low. A slowdown in the US housing market has also raised fears that the demand for industrial metal may be reduced. Shares in Xstrata, Vedanta and Antofagasta fell 6% on Wednesday, BHP Billiton also dropped dramatically, down 4.6% over 8% lower year-on-year. All feature in this week’s top buys and sells.

Oil prices have also slumped below $59 per barrel to a twenty month low as unusually warm weather in the US reduced the demand for heating; BP shares have dropped around 0.4% as a result. JKX Oil and Gas started the year strongly after its extensive well testing operations in the Ukraine proved successful; however this week its share price dropped slightly on Thursday following a wider oil and gas downward market trend of 1.63%.

Top 10 Buys
1 Partygaming
2 BP
3 Vodafone
4 Antofagasta
5 Xstrata
6 Vedanta Resources
7 BHP Billiton
8 British Energy
9 BT Group
10 Tesco

Top 10 Sells
1 Royal Bank of Scotland
2 Partygaming
3 Lloyds TSB Group
4 BP
5 BHP Billiton
6 Barclays
7 Vodafone
8 Glaxosmithkline
9 JKX Oil & Gas
10 Vedanta Resources