RBS in the spolight for TD Waterhouse customers

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD Waterhouse customers remained persistent buyers again this week with the number of trades bought almost doubling those sold. There is an eclectic mix to this week's tables although the three positions of our most traded stocks by customers continue to be dominated by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays.

"Looking at the trades in detail, there appears to be an interesting divide in customer trading activity in these particular stocks. Trades in Barclays are evenly split, indicating that customers are hoping to capitalise on the bank's volatile share price through regular, intra-day trading. While trades in Lloyds Banking Group are weighted more towards buys, albeit at a lesser extent than in previous weeks, with a buy/sell ratio of almost 2:1.

"However, the spotlight well and truly falls on RBS who issued their annual results yesterday. Our data includes trading activity up to market close on Tuesday, 24th February and at the time RBS accounted for 23% of our top ten trades.

"The Edinburgh-based lender has unveiled record losses of approx £25billion, a large proportion of which are a result of a write-down of assets, including those linked to its purchase of ABN Amro. The bank intends to shed around 10% - 20% of its global workforce along with several of its assets, which is thought to include some of those acquired under the ABN Amro takeover as well as its Asian banking unit. The 70% nationalised bank also announced its intention to place £325billion of its toxic debt into the Government's Asset Protection Scheme (APS), although it will still be liable for the first £19.5billion of any losses on insured assets. Although the results looked bad the bank's share price rallied by around 22% during the day on back of the UK plans.
"Mining companies also feature this week. European Nickel accounted for 3% of the top ten sells, as customers capitalised on the company's soaring share price following the announcement that it had secured a forestry permit for a 335 hectare mine development in Turkey. Share prices rose by 45% for the AIM-listed company, which recently sealed a $350million debt financing agreement with two Chinese partners. Meanwhile, Anglo American, one of the largest mining conglomerates, accounted for 4% of top ten buys following its recent announcement that it won't be raising a rights issue despite plans to make 19,000 job cuts and suspend all dividend payments until market conditions improve.

"Finally, three insurance companies - Legal & General, Aviva and Prudential - climbed the top ten tables this week claiming 22% of our customer buys between them. Legal and General accounted for 9% of buys and 4% of sells following its recent efforts to reassure customers that it has no plans to raise capital. Amongst all the turmoil caused by the state of the economy, rival-insurer Prudential reported a 5% increase in new business. The company's success obviously caught the eyes of customers as it accounted for 6% of the buys and 4% of sells."