Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 2 February 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: It has been a busy week in the markets as news of Tata’s tie-up with Corus and NASDAQ’s refusal to raise its price for the LSE dominates the headlines.

Indian steel giant Tata Steel finally completed its acquisition of its Anglo-Dutch counterpart Corus but investors remain undecided on the company’s post-acquisition prospects. Speculation continues over further market consolidation and potential job-losses which could accompany the merger, despite assurances from Tata executives to the contrary. The bid of £6.08p per share, valuing the company at £5.75bn, has been a long time coming and we have seen a spate of selling activity this week as investors digested the news.

The stock has experienced healthy growth of nearly 70% over the last 12 months as bid rumours sustained investor interest. Investors will be hoping for more to come from the soon-to-be fifth biggest steel group in the world.

Elsewhere and debt advisory service, Debt Free Direct enters the top ten for the first time after a rocky week for the FTSE AIM 50 listed company.

DFD’s share price dropped over 240p, almost halving the value of the stock this week as it released a profit warning after close of play on Friday.

Challenging trading conditions has meant that DFD is unlikely to meet market expectations in 2007 and a spate of heavy selling followed as confidence in the company crashed. However, investors were evidently reassured by the board’s response promising more positive revenue and growth for the forthcoming year as towards the end of the week the share price started to retrace, albeit marginally.

Elsewhere on the markets, investor sentiment hangs in the balance for Empyrean Energy which sees near equal amounts of buys and sells this week.

After initial investor enthusiasm last November in line with drilling progress at the Sugarloaf-1 exploration well in Texas, shares have slumped this month by over 23%: Uncertainty over inflation and interest rates in the world’s major economies, combined with the drop in price of oil has shaken confidence in the mining sector in early 2007. Nevertheless, the AIM-listed company remains upbeat that approval for testing at the primary Hosston Formation target at Sugarloaf-1, anticipated to start in the next fortnight, will remain on track giving investors food for thought.

Top 10 Buys
1 BP
2 Wolfson Microelectronics
3 Empyrean Energy
4 British Airways
5 Vodafone
6 British Energy
7 Tanfield Group
8 Partygaming
9 Debt Free Direct
10 Xstrata

Top 10 Sells
1 Royal Bank of Scotland
2 Vodafone
3 Partygaming
4 Empyrean Energy
5 Wolfson Microelectronics
6 Debt Free Direct
7 British Airways
8 Corus
9 Renesola
10 BHP Billiton

TD Waterhouse: The Top Ten buys and sells are measured as the number of trades carried out in each stock over the previous 7 days.