TD Waterhouse customers take advantage of falling shares

Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD Waterhouse customers continued their buying spree this week as buys outpaced sells by 30%, while trades in the overall top ten increased 7% on last week. Banking sector trades held the top spot with 56% of the overall top ten, lead by Lloyds Banking Group, which accounted for 28% of trading activity.

"Buys in the banking giant were 79% higher than sells as its shares dropped by 2.41% (1.55p) over the past seven days. On Tuesday the 41% state owned bank revealed its chief executive Eric Daniels will remain in his position for at least another year despite many shareholders blaming him for the ill-fated takeover of HBOS in 2008.

"Meanwhile buys in mining and energy stocks accounted for 36% of the overall top ten buys as our customers swooped on a fall in share prices. Shares in the sector fell 1.73% (148p), on the back of disappointing drilling results from Desire Petroleum's Liz well off the Falkland Islands. More details are expected later this week when the oil explorer releases full results of the programme. Desire leapt to third place (13%) in the buys table as its share price slumped 48.01% (48.25p) over the previous week. However, the company went on to reveal it has found gas at drilling below 3,400 meters, which it intends to evaluate in due course. The news also dealt a blow to Rockhopper Exploration - which has a 7.5% stake in the Liz well - causing its share price to fall 21.70% (12.75p), landing it in fifth position in the top ten buys.

"Cancer specialist Antisoma made its first appearance in the top ten this week, reaching eighth place in the buys after shelving a late-stage trial of its lung cancer drug ASA404. The British firm's shares dropped 78.05% (25.17p) after test results revealed little or no prospect of demonstrating a survival benefit to patients. The firm, which licensed the global rights to the drug to Novartis in 2007, plans to turn its attention on delivering phase III results for its other drug AS1413."