Retail investors mine for future profits

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "Christmas festivities appear to have spread to the stock market as our customers snapped up 42% more buys than sells this week. The banking sector looks set to be the Christmas number one, accounting for 64% of the overall top ten trades while the mining sector holds onto a sizeable quarter (24%) of the top ten trades.

"Oil giant and customer favourite Xstrata reached fourth and eighth place in this week's sells and buys tables, respectively after announcing plans to expand its focus to developing mines. Xstrata made up 30% of overall mining sells after its share price rose by 24p over the week following the appointment of Dr Con Fauconnier as an independent non-executive director. The Anglo-Swiss group also revealed it faces charges of $2.45bn for restructuring its nickel, copper and zinc businesses in Canada and Australia. Back in October, the mining group decided to drop plans for a merger with rival Anglo American - which would have given the group a market value of $96bn - after failing to meet demands from Anglo shareholders.

"Meanwhile, Range Resources made its first appearance in the top ten tables after confirming the third phase of its natural gas processing infrastructure expansion program is now complete. Buys were 53% higher than sells as it was announced that the US-based Marcellus shale is thought to yield approximately 180m cubic feet of natural gas per day - enough to meet domestic needs for at least a decade. Range expects to exit 2010 with 16 rigs and the hope of increasing it to 24 by the end of 2011.

"Finally, London-listed gold miner Petropavlovsk remained in this week's buys and sells tables following continued speculation about a potential promotion to the FTSE 100. Buys were 53% higher than sells as shares in the Russian-focused miner fell by 45p over the last seven days. Recently, the company has been benefiting from a hike in the price of gold."