Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 4 May 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: The plot thickened over the ongoing tussle for ABN Amro between Barclays and RBS yesterday after a Dutch Court blocked ABN’s £10.5bn sale of its US banking business to the Bank of America. Investment group VEB asked the court to stop the sale of LaSalle, arguing that ABN shareholders should have been consulted on the deal. The move was seen as an attempt by the 183-year old bank to avoid an “unwanted bidding process'' by RBS. Barclays’ hopes of securing a deal with ABN Amro crumbled with this ruling leaving RBS waiting in the wings. RBS climbs the ladder on this week’s Top 10 Buys with a share price up over eight per cent on last year to the 2000p level.

Lord Browne’s departure from BP also dominated this week with morale low at the Company after the Chief Executive faced questions from the UK press. Browne had planned to step down at the end of the summer but his replacement Tony Hayward replaced him this week with immediate effect. Our investors are upbeat on stock with hopes high on Hayward’s re- shuffle of BP’s board and his pledges to improve safety at the Company’s oil refineries.

Meanwhile, the share price of UK supermarket Tesco continues to grow, up over 45 % on last year hitting yearly highs of 464.50p this week. Interest has been high in the group since it emerged that Tesco could be a potential bidder for Coles Group, Australia's second-biggest retailer, possibly in conjunction with Woolworths. Tesco enjoyed strong investor interest from our customers this week after it was announced that the Company had hired Merrill Lynch to advise on the Coles deal.

Elsewhere on the markets, healthcare software supplier iSoft Group saw takeover talks continue to stagnate. iSoft announced earlier this week that negotiations with a number of private equity buyers had been delayed due to extensive consultation required on NHS National Programme. The share price is up over 35 per cent this week to 50 pence per share but is yet to recover fully from a drop in value during last year’s probe by the FSA into accounting irregularities


Top 10 Buys
1 Partygaming
2 Royal Bank of Scotland
3 BP
4 Barclays
5 Bradford & Bingley
6 Experian
7 Tesco
8 Tanfield
9 Isoft
10 Astrazeneca

Top 10 Sells
1 Partygaming
2 Vodafone
3 BT Group
4 Barclays
5 Isoft
6 British Energy
7 Scottish & Newcastle
8 Royal Bank of Scotland
9 Imperial Energy
10 Arm Holdings