Lloyds leads buying frenzy as overall trading rises
Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse Comments: "Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds) spurred a hike in trading activity this week, with customer buys accounting for more than two-thirds (70%) of the top ten trades, and overall trading activity of the most popular stocks increasing 53% on the previous week.
"Lloyds represented 31% of the top ten buys as customers jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of a fall in the bank's share price, which fell by 9.55% over the past seven days to a seven month low on the back of fears that it will announce a debt for equity swap later in the month.
"House builders made a comeback to this week's top ten after the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) called for action to address a £300 billion mortgage funding gap. Taylor Wimpey reached tenth position in the top ten sells following a recent share price hike. The international house builder has signaled it may offload its leading US operation Taylor Morrison later in the year - fuelling speculation that US house builders could be heading for a round of consolidation.
"Meanwhile, competitor Barratt Developments crept into eighth place in the top ten buys as its share price began to fall on the news that UK homeowners were being warned that the value of their properties would see only a small increase over the coming year. Economic data suggests a rise of just 1.5% by December followed by a further 2.2% by December 2011 despite demand outweighing supply.
"Telecoms company Vodafone dialed into sixth place in this week's top ten sells as customers cashed in on its highest share price hike in almost a year. Shares rose more than 5% to 141.80p on Friday after the company raised its forecast for cash before licence and spectrum payments from between £6.0 billion & £6.5 billion to between £6.5 billion & £7.0 billion for the year to the end of March.
"Finally, insurance giant Aviva crept back into the top ten buys this week - reaching seventh place - after its share price fell following a reported 25% drop to £8.9 billion in its UK sales for 2009. However, the company went on to announce a recovery in sales of life assurance, pensions and general insurance products in the fourth quarter and is said to be pondering bolt-on acquisitions after increasing its solvency surplus from £2.0 billion at the end of December 2008 to £4.5 billion at the end of last year."