Banking giants top the TD trading pile following stress test results
Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "Financial stocks were the most traded among TD customers in the week ending Tuesday 19 July as the European Banking Authority (EBA) announced the results of its stress tests among 90 banks across Europe, which were published after markets closed on Friday (15 July). Despite just eight organisations failing the test, the share prices of British banking giants Barclays (BARC), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) all dipped on Monday morning. However, TD customers appeared to be looking for a bargain with these three banks accounting for nearly half of all top ten buy trades this week.
"British Sky Broadcasting (BSY) spent a second week in our customer most popular buys table, moving up one place to fifth position as the fallout from the phone hacking scandal continued and the company's chairman, James Murdoch, faced a Parliamentary Select Committee. Analysts however, were more focused on the upcoming announcement of BSkyB's annual results (due Friday 29 July) and the potential for an accompanying dividend or share buyback. As a result, the company's share price showed signs of recovery after falling rapidly on the news that News Corporation had withdrawn its bid to buy out the broadcast giant. BSkyB had risen to 729p by the close of Tuesday (19 July) having dropped to 666p on the day the withdrawal of News Corp's bid was announced (Wednesday 13 July).
"The title for most popular sell of the week was shared between Yell Group (YELL) and Lloyds bank, both of which accounted for just under 20% of the top ten sell trades. Last week's number one sell, Xcite Energy (XEL), dropped two places to third as the AIM-listed oil firm said it had raised £4.2m through a standby equity distribution agreement. It stated that the funding will be used as future working capital and to help it press ahead with the first stage production of its Bentley field.
"Mining stocks accounted for three out of the four new entries across our top ten tables this week. Centamin Egypt (CEY) took 10th place in the sells table, while precious metals miner, Fresnillo (FRES) announced record silver and gold production for the second quarter on Thursday (14 July) boosted in part by its operations in Mexico. Fresnillo's share price closed the week ending Tuesday 19 July at 1660p, rising from 1431p at the beginning of the period, after announcing on Monday (18 July) that it would double output at its newly opened Saucito mine by 2016. Elsewhere, Toledo Mining (TMC) was the week's ninth most popular buy."