Top Ten Buys and Sells - UK Equities

Top Ten Buys and Sells - Weekly Retail Investor Activity Summary and Comment

The Top Ten Buys and Sells should not be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any particular bond or stock, and it is not intended to offer any form of advice. Instead it is simply an indication of the general buying and selling trends amongst some TD customers, observed during the period stated.

Darren Hepworth, Trading and Customer Services Director, TD comments:

“There was a mixed bag of stocks among our customer trades this week, with Xcite Energy Ltd (XEL) in particular entering high on the buys and sells tables. As we approach Christmas and market volatility continues, TD customers may have been looking to cash in on high yields and invest in discounted stocks. The buy/sell ratio has flipped from 1.6:1 in favour of buys last week to 1.6:1 in favour of sells this week. Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 finished the week in a stronger position, hitting 5,568 by markets close on Tuesday (6 December).

“While the banks remained ever popular with our customers this week – Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) and Barclays (BARC) finishing top of the buys and sells tables respectively – Xcite Energy Ltd was the highest new entry to our tables, taking second place in the buys and sixth in the sells. The company gave a rig update on Monday (5 December) in which it announced that it will soon start work on its Rowan Norway rig, which will be used to develop the Bentley oil field. Xcite’s share price lost nearly 32% by close on Tuesday however, dropping to 83.56p from a high of 122.14p last Wednesday (30 November). The drop appeared to give customers reason to both buy and sell the stock.

“Staying with oil, BP’s (BP.) CEO, Robert Dudley warned on Tuesday (6 December) that high oil prices could send the global economy into a fresh recession during a speech at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar. BP entered the top ten sells table in fourth position, while oil and gas explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) also proved popular with our customers, taking sixth and eighth places in our buys and sells tables respectively.

“National Grid (NG.) was this week’s ninth most popular buy as it prepared to submit business plans for its four UK gas distribution networks to Ofgem yesterday (Wednesday 7 December). The company’s share price dropped by nearly 8.5p during trading on Tuesday (6 December), closing at 601.95p ahead of the submission. 

“This weeks other new entrants included Premier Foods (PFD) at number 10 in the buys and miner Xstrata Plc (XTA) at seventh in the sells; the latter’s CEO, Mick Davis, told analysts on Tuesday (6 December) that he still saw his company’s investment in Lonmin as valuable, despite the consistent underperformance of the platinum producer's share price this year.”

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