Miners drill into top ten amid more profit taking

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "Mining companies were digging deep into the top ten this week accounting for a quarter (25%) of our most popular trades. Overall, the mining sector accounted for nearly a third (31%) of all top ten buys and 17% of all top ten sells. Recent mining stock price hikes and speculation of a commodity price revival appears to have spurred a bout of profit taking.

"Oil explorer Tower Resources made a new entrance at seventh and ninth place in the buys and sells tables respectively. The London-headquartered exploration company accounted for 20% of the top ten mining trades, with buys in the company 48% higher than sells. This may have been an indication that customers were taking advantage of the company's recent fall in share price. Shares fell as much as 57% on Monday after Tower Resources confirmed suspicions that one of the wells it had been digging in Uganda is dry.

"Fellow mining company Vedanta Resources has drilled its way into fourth place in this week's top ten buys. Our customers snapped up shares in the India-focused refinery and miner as its price continued to fall over the week. Last week the firm announced its aims to increase its efforts to raise $1.25bn instead of the previously mentioned $1bn in convertible bonds by 2016. Vedanta plans to use the cash to support its organic growth pipeline and increase its ownership interest in its subsidiaries.

"Xstrata was the most heavily traded mining stock this week accounting for 28% of our customers buys and sells in the sector. A regular to the top ten, the world's fourth largest copper producer claimed 43% of the top ten mining sells after its share price steadily tumbled during the week."