Trading volumes rise on the back of bid talk

Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "Overall, total TD Waterhouse customer trades increased by 59% this week, as the FTSE's rally came to an end closing 31.4 points down on Tuesday 7 September to finish at 5407.8, prior to its quarterly reshuffle.

"Banks were knocked off the top two buying spots by Yell Group (YELL) and old timer BP (BP). Shares in Yell Group, publisher of the Yellow Pages, surged last Thursday (2 September) after rumours emerged of a possible takeover for the heavily indebted company. Yell hit the top spot in the buys and sixth place in the sells table as its shares soared to their highest since February this year, increasing by 13% in a day, to close the day at 17.79p. However, analysts offered a range of other reasons for the rise including traders returning to work after the summer holidays and looking for cheap deals, or investors shorting the stock, of which about 16% was on loan.

"The resources sector continues to pique investor interest with some new energy and mining stocks entering the tables this week. The only London-listed potash mining group, Sirius Exploration (SXX.L), entered at sixth place in this week's buys table after securing exploration application licences on two new tenements in Western Australia.

"Another new buy stock from the sector was Zambian mining group, Berkeley Mineral Resources (BMR), which last month proposed to raise a further £275,000 by placing 18.3mn shares at a price of 1.5p per share. In addition, Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG), which was one of the leading performers among the small caps in the FTSE100 this week, crept into ninth position in the buys table.

"Meanwhile our customers decided to sell out of Rio Tinto (RIO). The Australian mining giant scrambled into tenth place on the sells table after shares fell on the back of weaker demand from China and news that the company had agreed to cut the price it would receive for its iron ore from Japanese steel makers.

"Finally, pharmaceutical giant Glaxosmithkline (GSK) re-entered the sells in ninth having last risen to this position during the week ending 18 August. Trading volumes increased with the recommendation by UK regulators that Glaxo's controversial diabetes drug Avandia should be removed from the UK market, following concerns it can aggravate heart problems in certain users."