TD customers buy mixed bag of shares
Darren Hepworth, Global Trading and Product Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD customers bought twice as many shares as they sold in a volatile week for the FTSE. During the week ending Tuesday 5 October, new entrants Man Group (EMG), Angle (AGL), BP (BP) and Range Resources (RRS) accounted for nearly a third (31%) of the top ten buys. Elsewhere, UK banks remained popular making up 49% of the top ten buys and 54% of the sells.
"Europe's largest listed hedge fund manager, Man Group, entered this week's table as the third most popular buy accounting for 13.6% of buy trades. The company appeared in the top ten following news that it will be doubling the number of job cuts it intends to make by early next year from 200 employees to 400. The cuts, which will take place by the first quarter of 2012, were already under way before Wednesday's trading statement, which showed that clients had pulled out $2.6 billion in assets in the three months to end-September
"Small cap technology investor, Angle, made seventh place in the buys and fifth in the sells this week accounting for 6.7% of all top ten trades. The new entrant has been making headlines after buying an additional interest in its portfolio company, Parsortix, increasing its total stake from 85% to 90%.
"Oil giant BP re-entered the top ten buys in eighth position and dropped three places to ninth position in the sells. TD customers may have been following news that it is building an US$ 800m wind farm in Kansas although latest news is now looking at a weekend fire at the Castellon refinery. It will be interesting to note how this news affects our customers' investment strategy next week.
"Meanwhile, Range Resources entered as the top ten as the 10th most popular buy and climbed three places to seventh position in the sells, following its annual results on Monday (3 Oct). The company listed over US$ 17.3m on the balance sheet at the end of June, but this figure excludes the additional US$ 15m raised last month at a 10% premium to its current share price. This latest injection of funds will be used to fast-track plans for a four well drilling programme on the Herrera prospects in Trinidad."