TD customers turn attention to global debt crises

Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "Financial stocks remained in focus this week as US lawmakers struggled to agree on raising the nation's debt ceiling. Meanwhile, in Europe the debt crisis continues to affect the markets despite the agreement to a €109bn Greek bail-out last Thursday (21 July). Oil stocks were also very popular in the week ending Tuesday 26 July, making up five of the seven new entrants across both tables and accounting for just over a third of our customer top ten trades this week.

"This week's top buy trades were unchanged from last week as Barclays (BARC), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) continued to occupy the table's top three places, respectively. The dominance of the financial stocks was also replicated in the sells table where Lloyds retained pole position, with Barclays moving up from fourth to second place and RBS climbing from fifth to third.

"Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), Sound Oil (SOU), Range Resources (RRL) and BP (BP) completed a run of new entrants in the buys table, taking fourth to seventh places, respectively.  Sound Oil also re-entered the sells in 10th place as its shares tumbled following the announcement of disappointing results from its Marciano-1ST well in Italy, on Monday (25 July). The company's share price declined by over a third on Monday, closing the day at 219p, having closed at 332p the previous Friday (22 July).

"Away from banking and oil exploration, Aviva (AV) entered the sells table in seventh place and dropped two places to eighth in our customers' top ten buys. The group's share price was buoyed as rumours spread of a possible bid for the UK insurance giant. Unconfirmed details last Thursday afternoon (21 July) were that the bid had been pitched at £6 a share, valuing Aviva at £17bn.

"Top ten regular ARM Holdings (ARM), which entered this week's sells at ninth place, saw its share price fall to a low of 587p on Tuesday afternoon (26 July) having reached a high of 631.5p earlier that morning. The drop came despite the technology company announcing an increase of 14% in pre-tax profits in the second quarter to 30 June 2011 compared with the same period last year."