TD customers focus firmly on financials
Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD customers traded heavily on financials week ending Tuesday 12 April as the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) released its recommendations on stabilising the industry. Investors also looked ready to cash in on the recent rally in the markets, which was tempered by the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) remarks that inflation in emerging economies still posed dangers to global economic recovery. The FTSE subsequently fell back below the 6,000-mark closing at 5,964.47 on Tuesday 12 April."
Darren Hepworth continues: "Monday's release of the ICB's report on the banking industry and the less-drastic-than-expected nature of its contents boosted Britain's biggest banks this week. It appears our customers were waiting to cash in on the news as Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY), Barclays (BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) accounted for just under half of our top ten sells this week. In fact, Lloyds topped both the top ten buys and sells tables for the third week in a row as its chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio continues his strategic review. The process includes looking at a proposal to split the banking giant in half, a move that would create a non-core bank, holding assets earmarked for sale.
"Two other major banks joined Lloyds in the top three places of the sells table. Barclays, which was the second most popular sell, fell out of the top ten buys table completely while RBS, which was the third most popular sell, managed to sneak into 10th position on the buys table.
"The IMF commented Monday that soaring oil prices were also a threat to economic recovery, as oil stocks dominated the buys table accounting for nearly 70% of all top ten buy trades. BP (BP), which today extended its deal with Rosneft, fell four places in the buys and six places in the sells, finishing the week in seventh and eighth places, respectively, with investors appearing to stall on any decisions pending the outcome of BP's AGM. New entrants to the buys included Encore Oil (EO), which confirmed a well on the Cladhan prospect in the UK Northern North Sea included the presence of a large oil column.
"Centamin Egypt (CEY) re-entered the sells as the mining company announced last Thursday (7 April) that 2011 production will be at the lower end of its target following a tumultuous quarter which saw a political revolution topple Egypt's President Mubarak. Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey (TW) entered the buys as analysts said they would not be surprised to see the house building sector "pause" in the near term."