Top ten trades
Wednesday 22 February 2012 (until noon)
Source: TD Direct Investing

TD Direct Investing view:

'Gulf Keystone accounts for a massive 47.8 per cent of the top ten buys and 29.2 per cent of the top ten sells after announcing it intends to step up from the AIM market to a premium listing on the official list of the London Stock Exchange.

'Cove Energy accounts for 11.4 per cent after Royal Dutch Shell has made an agreed £992.4 million bid for the Mozambique-focused company.'

BUY
1. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, 47.8 per cent
2. Xcite Energy, 14.1 per cent
3. Tesco, 9.3 per cent
4. Range Resources, 6.0 per cent
5. Barclays, 4.9 per cent
6. Royal Bank of Scotland, 4.3 per cent
7. Bowleven, 4.0 per cent
8. Lloyds Banking Group, 3.6 per cent
9. Vodafone Group, 3.3 per cent
10. Asian Citrus Holdings, 2.6 per cent

SELL
1. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, 29.2 per cent
2. Xcite Energy, 14.6 per cent
3. Cove Energy, 11.4 per cent
4. Lloyds Banking Group, 8.6 per cent
5. Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 8.1 per cent
6. Barratt Developments, 7.4 per cent
7. Range Resources, 7.2 per cent
8. Ophir Energy, 4.6 per cent
9= Bowleven, 4.4 per cent
9= Afren, 4.4 per cent

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 Direct Investing customers, observed during the period stated.

The construction firm saw the growth come mainly through its housebuilding division, where revenues nearly doubled to £277 million and an increase in profit margins from 6.5 per cent to 11 per cent delivered a 254 per cent profit jump to £35 million.

The construction division did not fare so well, with a modest rise in revenues offset by a decrease in profit margins, which kept operating profit level at £10.9 million.

In light of the huge profit growth, the company has decided to increase its dividend per share from 4.5p to 9p.

Investors reacted positively to the profits and dividend increase, with shares in Galliford Try currently trading up 7.78 per cent at 540p at 12.30pm.

The company, which built the retractable roof over Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2009, had put in place a three year plan to substantially increase profits from its housebuilding division in September 2009.

Chief executive Greg Fitzgerald commented, ‘The group is confident that it is on track to deliver all the objectives of its three year housebuilding expansion plan during the current financial year, with our southern biased business performing strongly despite the general economic uncertainty.

‘The housing market has remained resilient and we are encouraged by the continued strength of the market during the first seven weeks of 2012.’

Fitzgerald explained that the company would follow up its housebuilding expansion by concentrating on the south of England.

‘This approach is expected to deliver revenue and profit growth and support an enhanced dividend and a progressive dividend policy going forward,’ he said.

The strong performance was driven by a 13 per cent rise in underlying profit in its beverage can business.

The packaging maker also announced its intention to sell its underperforming personal care division after it dragged down the profits on its plastic packaging business, and analysts estimate the sale could raise £350 million.

The firm, which makes cans for PepsiCo and Red Bull, as well as food and medical packaging, also saw a 22 per cent drop in its net debt to £1.3 billion and celebrated by raising its total dividend 20 per cent to 14.4p.

Rexam is currently leading the FTSE 100 risers off the back of its results, trading up 3.51 per cent at 397.9p at 11.55am.

Graham Chipchase, Rexam's chief executive, commented, ‘We are delighted with the continued progress of the business in 2011.

‘Our strong profit growth was achieved by a better-than-expected performance in our beverage cans business, primarily in Europe, and a continued focus on cost management.’

Chipchase indicated that the company held a cautious outlook for 2012, warning that a key product in its healthcare division was set to come off patent and that the company faced other cost challenges.

He added, ‘The volume environment for beverage cans remains robust, but we do not anticipate any turnaround in the performance of plastic packaging in the near term.

‘Overall, we expect 2012 to be another year of progress as we continue to focus on cash, costs and return on capital employed.’

Top ten trades
Monday 20 February 2012 (until noon)
Source: TD Direct Investing

TD Direct Investing view:

'Oil explorers made up the top four of the top ten buys this morning – Xcite Energy, Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Bowleven and Leed Petroleum plc account for 27.7 per cent, 22.7 per cent, 13.9 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively after Iran announced it would stop selling oil to the UK.
   
'BP was also affected by the news and moves up the top ten sells table accounting for 15.9 per cent.'

BUY
1. Xcite Energy, 27.7 per cent
2. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, 22.7 per cent
3. Bowleven, 13.9 per cent
4. Leed Petroleum, 6.2 per cent
5. Lloyds Banking Group, 6.0 per cent
6. Range Resources, 5.8 per cent
7. Falkland Oil & Gas, 4.7 per cent
8. Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 4.5 per cent
9. Max Petroleum, 4.3 per cent
10. Shaft Sinkers Holdings, 4.1 per cent

SELL
1. Xcite Energy, 20.4 per cent
2. BP, 15.9 per cent
3. Lloyds Banking Group, 15.6 per cent
4. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, 10.1 per cent
5. Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 9.5 per cent
6. Barclays, 7.6 per cent
7. Bowleven, 6.4 per cent
8. Range Resources, 5.2 per cent
9. Westminster Group, 4.6 per cent
10. Bahamas Petroleum Company, 4.5 per cent

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 Direct Investing customers, observed during the period stated.

The firm requested the suspension after being contacted by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) over the weekend.

The FSA has been investigating CPP since March 2011 over issues relating to the sale of the company’s credit card and identity protection products.

According to a statement from CPP, the regulator has requested that it ‘undertake a review of certain past business sales and to make certain changes to its renewals process’.

In response, CPP claimed the FSA’s requirements were ‘disproportionate and threaten the viability of the business’ and the two sides have now entered into negotiations over what steps CPP must take.

The firm admitted that, whatever comes from the negotiations, likely to last no more than two weeks, ‘it is likely that any agreed outcome will have a significant adverse financial impact on the group’.

CPP concluded, ‘Given the uncertainty as to such outcome, CPP is currently unable to assess accurately its financial position and inform the market accordingly, and as such considers an immediate suspension to be appropriate.

‘The group expects that the suspension will remain in force until such time as CPP is able to determine with sufficient clarity the financial impact of such actions as are required by the FSA to be taken, which may not be known for some time.’

The shares are currently suspended at 103p, significantly lower than its price of 235p after its initial public offering in 2010 and the price of 280p before the announcement of the FSA investigation in March 2011.

The mining giant saw its operating profit rise 14 per cent to $11.1 billion on revenues up 11 per cent to $36.5 billion.

Underlying earnings per share surged 23 per cent to $5.03, well ahead of analyst expectations of $4.78.

The Kumba iron ore unit posted a 29 per cent profit rise to $4.4 billion, while the thermal coal division saw profits soar 73 per cent to $1.2 billion, aided by higher export coal prices in South Africa and Colombia.

However, lower sales volumes and higher operating costs contributed to a 13 per cent decline in profits from Anglo’s copper division.

The firm’s final dividend was 43 cents a share, meaning that the total dividend for 2011 was up 14 per cent to 74 cents.

Investors had hoped the firm would use some of the cash trapped in South Africa by exchange controls to fund a special dividend but Anglo seems to be focusing on using it to boost growth and expects to approve $16 billion of projects over the next three years.

Chief executive Cynthia Carroll commented, ‘Anglo American delivered an impressive financial and operational performance in 2011, as we continued to capture the benefits of operational improvements and disciplined cost management to capitalise on the attractive commodity demand and pricing environment that prevailed for much of the year.’

Shares in Anglo American are currently trading up 1.36 per cent at 2680p at 10.30am, outperforming the FTSE 100 but underperforming the rest of the mining sector.

Top ten trades
Thursday 16 February 2012
Source: The Share Centre

BUY
1. Xcite Energy, 7.3 per cent
2. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, 2.8 per cent
3. Sefton Resources, 2.7 per cent
4. Lloyds Banking Group, 2.4 per cent
5. Glencore International, 2.1 per cent
6. Afren, 1.6 per cent
7. Tesco, 1.5 per cent
8= Royal Bank of Scotland, 1.4 per cent
8= African Barrick Gold, 1.4 per cent
10. Vodafone, 1.3 per cent

SELL
1. Xcite Energy, 5.7 per cent
2. Glencore International, 3.0 per cent
3. Sefton Resources, 2.4 per cent
4. Barclays, 2.0 per cent
5= Lloyds Banking Group, 1.6 per cent
5= Kenmare Resources, 1.6 per cent
7. BP, 1.5 per cent
8. Bahamas Petroleum Company, 1.4 per cent
9= Tesco, 1.2 per cent
9= Central Rand Gold, 1.2 per cent 

The fall in production meant that, despite the price of gold soaring at the end of 2011, Barrick still suffered an 8 per cent drop in revenues to £285.2 million and a huge 33 per cent plunge in profits to £52.7 million.

Despite tripling its full-year dividend to 16.3p, African Barrick's poor results saw its share price drop 8.93 per cent to 472.2p at 11.25am.

African Barrick tried to focus on its full-year performance, where profit has risen 26 per cent to 274,895, and blamed the drop in production on the planned reduction from its North Mara site to focus on waste stripping and the impact of power outages in Tanzania on its Buzwagi site.

Greg Hawkins, CEO of African Barrick, commented, ‘The underlying performance of each of our assets has improved over the year with three of the four mines achieving production increases, despite the impact of the unreliable power situation in Tanzania.

‘Our strategic investment in exploration has led to a four-fold increase of the resource at Nyanzaga and as a result our total resource base now stands at over 31 million ounces.’

Hawkins set out a 2012 production target of 675,000 to 725,000 ounces of gold at a cash cost of $790 to $860 per ounce sold, compared to $692 in 2011.