TD Waterhouse - Desire Petroleum most traded stock
Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD Waterhouse customers embarked on a trading frenzy this week, increasing overall trading volumes of the top ten stocks by 46%. Trading of resources stocks drove the surge, accounting for 52% and 68% of the top ten buys and sells respectively, in the week ended 19 October 2010.
"Desire Petroleum (DES) was the week's most traded stock, coming top among the sells and second among the buys. The Falklands-focused oil explorer's shares dropped by 35% on Friday 15 October, after announcing that its exploration well on the Rachel prospect had not discovered any hydrocarbons, dashing hopes that it might emulate the success of rival Rockhopper Exploration's (RKH) similar Sea Lion discovery. Rockhopper, which has a 7.5% working interest in the Rachel well, was the second most-sold and fourth most-bought stock of the week."
"Oil explorers dominated TD Waterhouse customer trading this week with three other stocks joining Desire and Rockhopper in the top ten tables. Max Petroleum (MXP) entered the buys at seventh place after it found a zone of oil on the way down to its main exploration targets on the Uytak prospect in Kazakhstan, sending its share price soaring. Familiar favourite Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) was also a popular trade, placing eighth on the buys and sixth on the sells, after surprising the market with a $175 million share placement designed to fund the expansion of its Iraq drilling project. Encore Oil (EO), meanwhile, placed sixth on the buys and ninth on the sells after rumours of rig damage caused shares to drop sharply on the morning of Thursday 14 October. The share price recovered after Encore reassured investors that the rig delivery was merely delayed by bad weather.
"Financials were also well represented, with Barclays (BARC) the most bought stock overall. Part-nationalised banks Lloyds (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) saw increased trading activity in advance of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review."