Trading volumes soar as Lloyds launches rights issue
Trading volumes up 39% with Lloyds accounting for almost a third of the TD Waterhouse top ten. Angus Rigby, Chief Executive Officer, TD Waterhouse comments: "Overall trades were up 39% compared to the previous week, with buys storming 37% ahead of sells. Dominating the top spot as the most popular trade by TD Waterhouse customers, Lloyds Banking Group helped the banking sector claim almost two thirds (62%) of this week's top ten after launching its heavily anticipated rights issue.
"Lloyds accounted for 32% of the overall top ten after kicking-off its £13.5bn rights issue by offering its 2.8m private shareholders the opportunity to buy the nil paid rights at a discount of 60% of their value. Sell of the rights issue by our customers accounted for over a third (34%) of the total sells in Lloyds' stock. The banking group hopes the fundraising will prove a viable alternative to entering the Government's £260bn Asset Protection Scheme. Last week, the part-nationalised bank made another series of redundancies - cutting 410 jobs - with the closure of its contact centre in Brighton in a bid to reduce costs.
"TD Waterhouse customers also turned to the mining sector, which accounted for more than a quarter (26%) of the top ten buys and sells. Gulf Keystone Petroleum was the most popular mining stock, reaching fourth place in both the buys and sells tables after it reported further substantial discoveries at its Shaikan-1 well in Kurdistan. Rio Tinto climbed into ninth place in the top ten buys after announcing the completion of its sale of Alcan Composites to Schweiter Technologies in a $349m deal. The mostly Australia and Canada-focused miner has managed to raise $8.3bn in asset sales since February 2008 in an effort to tackle its hefty debt pile.
"Meanwhile insurer Aviva entered seventh place in the top ten buys this week after agreeing to sell RAC France in a deal that is expected to complete by the end of the year. On Tuesday (1st Dec) Barclays revealed it will continue to provide Aviva home insurance on an exclusive basis after renewing the previous contract dating back from 2005."