Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 13 April 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: With spirits lifted by the Easter break, our investors return to the markets with renewed vigour this week. Oil giant BP has enjoyed strong trading as reports flare over a possible shareholder revolt over the pay package of outgoing BP chairman Lord Browne. The share price sees a modest lift this week to the 560p level but is still down by almost 20 per cent on 2006 after a rather dismal year for the group. Analysts will be keenly awaiting BP’s first-quarter trading update this Monday as reports suggest major shareholders could be preparing to reject the company's pay report which includes Lord Browne in a three-year incentive scheme.

Elsewhere, investor confidence is divided over UK supermarket Sainsbury this week after the CVC-led buyout consortium announced it was withdrawing from the running for the Company. Sainsbury announced it would not to be considering offers under 600p a share, 18p above CVC’s final bid. After riding high at 561p per share at the beginning of April, Sainsbury’s share price slumps this week more than seven per cent. With share value up by more than 54 per cent on the year, investors will be waiting to hear what’s in store for the Company now that US private equity interest hopes are quashed.

Rival retailer Tesco also experiences strong investor activity this week as it eyes up Thailand and looks to expand business further in South East Asia. The share price has risen steadily over the last year, hitting yearly highs of 458.25p this month.Darmp Sukontasap, senior executive of Ek-Chai Distribution System, which operates Tesco-Lotus stores in Thailand, announced plans to add around 60 convenience stores to the 260 outlets already opened in the country. Shareholders appear confident that the company’s Thai investment coupled with the recent joint property venture with British Land could boost growth in the retail sector over the forthcoming year.

Meanwhile, shareholders hit the breaks on stock in aero engine group Rolls Royce this week, despite news on Wednesday that the Company had won the first order for engines to power the new Airbus A330 freighter plane through Guggenheim Aviation Partners. The Guggenheim deal, which will see the engine selected for up to six aircrafts, is reported to be worth around $200m at list prices. The share price slows marginally this week but is still up by around six per cent thanks to a number of contract wins this quarter.


Top 10 Buys
1 Royal Bank of Scotland
2 Jessops
3 HSBC Holdings
4 Partygaming
5 BP
6 Vodafone
7 Tesco
8 Max Petroleum
9 Sainsbury J
10 Lloyds TSB Group

Top 10 Sells
1 Standard Life
2 Bradford and Bingley
3 Royal Bank of Scotland
4 Sainsbury J
5 Scottish power PLC
6 Rolls Royce Group
7 Tesco
8 Scottish & Southern Energy
9 Vodafone
10 Centrica

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