Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 21 September 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: There are no prizes for guessing the most traded stock on our top ten buys and sells list this week, as the funding difficulties surrounding mortgage lender Northern Rock dominated the market news. Shares in the Newcastle-based firm initially slumped last Friday following a Company statement that emergency funds were required from the Bank of England in order to finance Northern Rock’s lending commitments.

The Company’s share price steadied on Tuesday after the government announced that it would guarantee the deposits of Northern Rock account holders in a bid to reinvigorate confidence among savers and investors that the long term viability of the Company was secure. This was followed by an intense period of market activity in the early hours of Thursday morning which resulted in a further fall in Northern Rock’s share value, as institutional investors reduced exposure in the stock. In seven days, the Company’s share price has dropped 71.02 per cent. As expected, our customers’ interest in Northern Rock saw the company poll number one in both the top buys and top sells categories.

The situation at Northern Rock also affected the stock value of other leading mortgage lenders, as fears surfaced that the knock-on effects of the sub-prime credit shortage would spread throughout the sector. High levels of investor activity saw shares in lenders Alliance & Leicester, Bradford & Bingley and HBOS fluctuate throughout the week, reflected in their respective positions at number two, three and ten on our top buys list.

Alliance & Leicester’s stock fell 30 per cent in one day before recovering to 780p, while Bradford & Bingley’s shares traded at levels 16.52 per cent below their valuation at the same time last week. HBOS experienced similar trends, with their share price down 55p in one week.

TD Waterhouse Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 21 September 2007

Top 10 Buys
1 Northern Rock
2 Alliance & Leicester
3 Bradford & Bingley
4 Royal Bank of Scotland
5 Barclays
6 Lloyds TSB Group
7 British Airways
8 Standard Life
9 Central African Mining
10 HBOS

Top 10 Sells
1 Northern Rock
2 Barclays
3 Vodafone Group
4 Lloyds TSB Group
5 Alliance & Leicester
6 Royal Bank of Scotland
7 Bradford & Bingley
8 BT Group
9 BHP Billiton
10 BP

TD Waterhouse Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells are measured as the number of trades carried out in each stock over the previous 7 days.