Strong trading continues in oil and financials

Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "Following last week's record trading activity among TD customers, trading volumes remained high in the week ending Tuesday, 16 August.

“There were only two new entrants to this week's buys and sells tables with a heavy focus on financial and resource stocks, which accounted for 85% of the overall top ten trades of the week. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 made some gains relative to its position at the same time last week, but remained low, closing Tuesday (16 August) at 5,357.63.

"Oil explorer Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) reappeared in the buys table this week in 10th place and moved up to sixth from ninth in the sells. Its share price was boosted on Monday (15 August) as the company revealed that its estimate of how much oil it could locate and extract from its recent discovery in the North Falkland basin was better than expected. Rockhopper raised the low-case estimate for the Sea Lion prospect from 516m to 608m accordingly and the company's share price, which closed on Friday (12 August) at 212p, rose over 20% to a Monday high of 255p before falling back slightly to close out the day at just over 240p. 

"Elsewhere in oil, Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) also had good news for its investors last week as it announced that a new independent assessment put the size of its Sheik Adi oil discovery between 1bn and 3bn barrels of oil. The Kurdish explorer finished the week at sixth in the buys and third in the sells.

"Meanwhile it was another tough week for Britain's banks as some analysts suggested that the volatility among financial stocks was not solely down to fears about eurozone debt, but instead surrounded concerns about the ring fencing of banking giants' assets. Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) remained top of the buys table, but Barclays (BARC) took the top spot on the sells, with Lloyds moving down to second place Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) was a non-mover, remaining third and fourth in the buys and sells tables respectively.

"Away from oil and financial stocks Aviva (AV) dropped one place in the buys to fifth and entered the top ten sells in 10th position, while Vodafone (VOD) and Tesco (TSCO) both moved two places up the buys table to seventh and eighth respectively."