TD customers shop for supermarkets on Budget day
Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "Budget-day trading activity among TD customers focused on J Sainsbury (SBRY), which will have noted George Osborne's "pro-growth" speech after announcing lower than expected sales as shoppers continue to feel the pinch. The corresponding fall in the company's share price led to J Sainsbury being the second most popular buy on Wednesday (23 March). The news also had a knock-on effect on supermarket shares in general with Tesco Plc (TSCO) appearing in fourth place in the buys.
"While the chancellor also announced that fuel duty would be cut by 1p per litre, he said a new ‘fair fuel stabiliser' would be paid for by around £2bn worth of extra taxes on North Sea oil firms. And it was oil that was the firm focus among TD customers in the week leading to yesterday's budget (to Tuesday, 22 March) as attention appeared to turn from Japan to a series of air strikes against Libya, the world's twelfth largest oil producer. As a result, trading in oil shares continued to build on the dominance shown in the previous week's top ten tables with both the top ten oil buys and sells increasing by over 25% on last week.
"AIM-listed oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) shot to the top of both the buys and sells tables for the week ending 22 March after it reported significant initial oil flow at its Shaikan-2 Appraisal well in Kurdistan on Friday (18 March). The company's share price rocketed skyward as a result, peaking at 190p on Monday (21 March) and again early Tuesday (22 March), before falling sharply to a low of 158.85p the same day as it appeared investors looked to be cashing in on the good news.
"Sound Oil (SOU) and Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) took third and fourth places respectively in both the buys and sells tables. Rockhopper's shares jumped as the British oil company announced a positive appraisal of its Sea Lion well in the Falkland Islands that makes it highly likely the well will prove commercially viable. Its shares closed at 217p Friday (18 March) before opening at 339p Monday morning. Meanwhile Sound Oil announced on Wednesday (16 March) it has secured a contract with Hydro Drilling International SpA to provide a drilling rig for the Marciano-1ST well completion operation in Italy, which is expected to commence in April. Sound Oil's CEO, Gerry Orbell said the news put the company on track to meet its operations schedule for 2011.
"Range Resources (RRL) took sixth spot in both tables as it announced Monday (21 March) that its fracture stimulation programme had restarted at its North Chapman Ranch project in Texas. The company also added that initial results from the largest zone on the Russell Bevly well looked "promising", and gave more detail on drilling at Cotton Valley, also located in Texas.
"Away from oil, the FTSE 100 began its recovery following the disaster in Japan and it was miners that led the charge due to the potential demand for metals in the rebuilding process; against this backdrop Xstrata (XTA) entered the top ten sells in ninth place."