Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 1 June 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: The tug of war for Dutch bank ABN Amro reverberates through the markets as talk around European banking’s most contested takeover continues between RBS Chief Executive Fred Goodwin and Barclays’ CEO John Varley. Royal Bank of Scotland saw heavy trading by TD Waterhouse clients this week on speculation that the takeover battle for the Dutch bank ABN Amro could be a drawn-out affair, with the market waiting for the outcome of a Supreme Court ruling.

The share price of RBS has been on the downward turn since March, dropping 2 per cent this week. TD Waterhouse investors’ confidence in Barclays is divided, with near equal numbers of buys and sells in stock this week. Barclays’ own shareholders threatened this week to block an attempt by the bank to raise cash to increase its offer for ABN Amro. Barclay’s initial bid for ABN Amro was topped by the RBS consortium earlier this week, who have now offered €71.1bn, balancing out at €38.40 per share.

Investor interest was also high in mortgage lender Bradford and Bingley amidst news that UK house price growth could be slowing. Despite figures released by Nationwide yesterday showing a 10% increase in house prices year-on-year, data indicated that a national slow down was on the books. With talk that re-mortgaging prices are on the increase, Bradford and Bingley experienced strong buys and sells in its stock this week, as its share price shifted closer to 52 week lows of 426 pence per share.

Pharmaceutical titan Glaxosmithkline (GSK) was also popular amongst our investors this week, despite ongoing speculation over the safety of its diabetes drug Avandia. After plummeting in mid May, the decline in share value for Glaxosmithkline eases up this week, though still remains down by around 10 per cent on last month.


Top 10 Buys
1 Glaxosmithkline
2 Royal Bank of Scotland
3 Partygaming
4 Victoria Oil & Gas
5 British Airways
6 Bradford & Bingley
7 Barclays
8 Blinkx PLC
9 Stanelco
10 Tanfield Group


Top 10 Sells
1 Standard Life
2 Vodafone Group
3 Bradford & Bingley
4 Partygaming
5 BT Group
6 Barclays
7 British Airways
8 Experian Group
9 Royal Bank of Scotland
10 Tanfield Group


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