BA flies into the TD Waterhouse top ten buys

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "As this week's snow caused chaos to all major airports in the UK, BA appeared to suffer the effects on Monday as its share price closed four pence down. Our customers were more than ready to pounce on the reduced stock and as a result, BA have flown into this week's top ten as the sixth most popular buy.

"The airline is on the verge of a merger with Iberia, Spain's national airline, with whom it has been in talks since last July, and BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh has clocked up a fair few air miles recently. Only last week he enjoyed warmer weather in Hyderabad to celebrate 80 years of BA's connection with India and to talk to a select media gathering about the future of the company. Despite India being the second biggest overseas market for BA (after the US); Walsh revealed that due to the economic situation BA's Kolkata service will be withdrawn from April."

"However, snow can not be the blamed for the mixed fortunes of The Cookson Group, who has been forced to take serious action recently. The company, a worldwide leading supplier of fabricated precious metals to the jewellery industry, has announced it will cut 1,250 jobs in order to make an annual saving of £40m. On top of that, Cookson has announced a rights issue of £240m in an attempt to reduce debt. It is therefore not surprising that the group is a newcomer to the top ten sales chart at number seven, but there might just be a silver lining on the horizon. The company has also said it expects global steel production - to which over 40% of group trading profit is linked - to recover later in 2009.

"3i Group is another new entry, appearing in both the top ten buys and sells at number seven and ten respectively. The world-leader in private equity recently appointed Michael Queen as its new Chief Executive, and swiftly moved to sell its 48% stake in the Swedish core materials maker, DIAB, for a cool €37.3m. Queen, who started at 3i as an investment professional back in 1987, will reportedly bring a more hands-on approach to the job. It has been revealed that 3i is considering its options when it comes to reducing its debt - and selling stakes in other companies, such as DIAB, is just one of those options.

"Finally, it would be amiss of me not to mention the ongoing activity around banking stock as Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group all retain their claim to the top three positions in both the buys and sells tables. Once again these three banks make up the bulk of our customer activity this week, accounting for 72% of overall trades with a buy/sell ratio of almost 2:1."