Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 14 December 2007

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse, commented: Last week’s quarter-point interest-rate cut failed to stave off predictions of an economic slowdown for 2008. This week’s surprise response from the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve and three other central banks to inject cash into the money markets had the immediate effect of cutting the Libor rate at which banks lend to each other in a bid to boost global liquidity. There had been fears that the higher rate could lead to slower economic growth but this news hasn’t deterred investors who continue to maintain strong activity in the turbulent financial services sector this week.

Casting an eye away from this sector, investor interest was also strong in Ashtead Group, the equipment rental group, which was popular amongst TD Waterhouse customers this week. Announcing a strong rise in interim pre-tax profits on Tuesday, Ashtead’s chief executive played down fears about its exposure to a downturn in the US construction industry and an expensive recent acquisition. The Company reported pre-tax profits of £75.7m in the six months to October, compared with a loss of £30.6m last year. Sales rose from £422.3m to £523.5m. Ashtead’s share price saw a 52-week high of 181.5p in February but is now down almost 50 per cent year on year edging closer to its 52-week low of 68.75p.

Meanwhile, our customers increased their exposure to Northgate Information Solutions (NIS), the FTSE small cap human resources software group. Last week, the share value hit its lowest level in nearly three years (59.25p per share) as investors continued to fret over capital structure, despite the Company enjoying its strongest first half in five years. Share value in NIS began to recover with confirmation from the Company this week that it had received a takeover approach assuring investors that trading levels were comfortable. However, share price in NIS yesterday was almost 24 per cent lower year on year, trading at 63p per share at market’s close.

TD Waterhouse Top Ten Retail Investor Buys & Sells for week ending 14 December 2007

Top 10 Buys
1 Royal Bank of Scotland
2 Barclays
3 Bradford & Bingley
4 Northern Rock
5 Lloyds TSB
6 Ashtead Group
7 Northgate Info Sol
8 Xstrata
9 BHP Billiton Plc
10 Debenhams

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

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