Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 9 February 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: With the blistery weather outside, one could be forgiven for thinking it was still Christmas, particularly in light of persistent consumer spending which remains strong, according to the British Retail Consortium's retail sales monitor results this week. Despite a series of interest rate hikes over recent months, consumer confidence remains robust, with like-for-like sales up by over three per cent last month, the strongest performance for January in three years. Food sales were amongst the strongest in the New Year, followed by electrical and DIY products.

With this news, retailers were in strong demand this week, with Sainsbury’s ranking among the top performers. Shares in the UK supermarket have been bolstered by speculation over a possible take over by a consortium of private equity groups, leaving analysts positive about the stock. The share price rose this week to the 515p mark.

Meanwhile, investors are showing less enthusiasm for rival Tesco, despite a rise of around three per cent in share price this week. The supermarket giant has enjoyed strong sales across all areas of it is business of late, with profits driven by its organic food range, as ethical trading features strongly on consumers’ shopping lists. However, interest from our investors waned in the stock this week, perhaps dampened by coverage of The Competition Commission’s recent investigation into Tesco’s monopoly over the UK grocery market.

Elsewhere, it has been a bitter-sweet week for Tate & Lyle, whose stock is proving popular, despite reports that demand is falling for one of its key products Splenda Sucralose. Investors appear to be holding out in the hope that Britain’s healthy eating trend will take hold more strongly in 2007, renewing interest in sugar alternatives.

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

Top 10 Buys
1 BP
2 Sainsbury (J)
3 Tanfield Group
4 Stanelco
5 Partygaming
6 Victoria Oil & Gas
7 British Energy Group
8 BHP Billiton PLC
9 Tate & Lyle
10 Biofuels Corp

Top 10 Sells
1 BHP Billiton PLC
2 Sainsburys (J)
3 BP
4 Arm Hldgs
5 Tesco
6 Victoria Oil & Gas
7 Vodafone
8 Lloyds TSB Group
9 Wolfson Microelectronics
10 Partygaming