TD customers look to new opportunities
Darren Hepworth, Global Trading and Product Director, TD Waterhouse comments: "TD customers appeared to be looking at new opportunities this week as our top ten most popular buys and sells tables contained financial, resource, mining, travel and telecommunications stocks. The buy:sell ratio increased to just over 2.5:1 in a week where the FTSE 100 once again struggled to make much headway. It finished the week ending Tuesday, 22 November, at just below 5,207, having lost over 300 points since the same time last week.
"Thomas Cook (TCG) was the most notable new entrant to both the buys and sells tables this week. The travel firm's share price dropped on Tuesday as it announced it would delay the reporting of its full year results. The company also said that due to poor trading conditions, it was in talks with banks about the possibility of increasing its financing. Having closed at 41.62p on Monday (21 November), its share price fell as low as 9.6p the following day. The company entered the buys in second place and the sells in sixth as it appeared that some customers wanted to offload the stock while others looked for a bargain.
"Other new entrants to the sells table were oil and gas explorers, Range Resources (RRL) and Desire Petroleum (DES), taking seventh and eighth places respectively. AIM listed Range Resources received a boost on Friday (18 November) as it announced that its reserves in Trinidad had increased to 15.4 million barrels of oil, while Desire has made steady gains since its 3 November rig update, which revealed that the Ocean Guardian drill rig will remain in the Falklands until 1 March 2012.
"Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) dropped from last week's top spot in the sells to finish second behind Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY), which was also our customers' most popular buy. Gulf Keystone announced the completion of the testing programme for its Shaikan-2 deep appraisal well on Monday (21 November).It plans to build a second extended well test production facility, which will allow the firm to produce around 40,000 barrels of oil per day from the Shaikan field.
"Other new entrants to this week's buys table included seventh place, Xstrata Plc (XTA). The company lost over 10% of its value in the week ending Tuesday (22 November) amid reports that Chinese manufacturing may contract this month and that Australia has passed a new tax on mining profits.
"Meanwhile, fellow new entrant to the buys, Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW), announced on Tuesday, 15 November, that former Vodafone CEO Gavin Darby would join the company as CEO on 28 November, replacing outgoing CEO John Pluthero."