Taylor Wimpey builds hope for a property market revival

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "Taylor Wimpey caught the attention of profit seeking customers this week, climbing to fourth place in the top ten sells, after a revival of its share price. The house-builder gave a more stable outlook for the housing market as it announced a £971m (73%) increase in its current order book. However, Halifax has since noted a 0.5% decrease in property prices during the month of June, which serves as a timely reminder that there is still uncertainty in the market and we may not be out of the woods quite yet.

"In the banking sector, Barclays has dropped out of our most popular buys table for the first time this year, but it was the most popular stock sold by TD Waterhouse customers this week. With more than a third (35%) of the top ten sells, it seems customers may have been looking to cash-in on the bank's rising share price during a week of volatility. Shares plummeted at the beginning of the week after the bank sold 52.7 billion yen of three-year samurai bonds. The samurai bonds, which are without a government guarantee, mark the first issue from a genuine private firm since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Shares in Barclays picked up on Tuesday following the announcement that its Israeli unit has hired five traders and salespeople.

"Volatility in the mining sector may have prompted customers into buying mode this week, which helped overall buys rise 22% above sells. As the benchmark FTSE 100 slipped 1% last Wednesday on a drop in copper prices, our customers may have perceived a buying opportunity in reduced mining stock. Buys in Xstrata were 61% higher than sells as the Swiss miner mulls a second bid for rival Anglo American. At fourth place, buys in Rio Tinto weren't much further behind as the oil major sold the US food packaging division of aluminium subsidiary Alcan to Bemis in a $1.2bn deal in the latest move to reduce its $38.7bn debt pile. But after today's news that the sector is down by one-seventh since last month, it will be interesting to see how our customers react this week."