HSBC Holdings joined the list of top trades on Friday as chief executive Michael Geoghegan announced he was to become the first boss based in Hong Kong since 1993.

The company accounted for around six per cent of morning sales at TD Waterhouse although full day trading figures from Barclays Stockbrokers suggest that trading eased in the afternoon session, with the stock just about holding on to a position in the top ten.

Competitors Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Barclays once again dominated the top trades list, accounting for a combined 15 per cent of all buy and sell activity.

Meanwhile, investors moved to sell mineral exploration stock Centamin Egypt on Friday after its listing was removed from the Australian Securities Exchange despite continuing to have a listing on the London and Toronto Stock Exchanges.

At sixth position on the list, Centamin represented just over 1.4 per cent of all trading activity.

Barclays Stockbrokers
Top trades
Friday 29 January 2010

Buy
1. Lloyds Banking Group, 5.5 per cent
2. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, 5.5 per cent
3. Barclays, 5.1 per cent
4. Xstrata, 3.2 per cent
5. BP, 2 per cent
6. Afren, 1.7 per cent
7. Connaught, 1.5 per cent
8. Rio Tinto, 1.3 per cent
9. MAN Group, 1.2 per cent
10. Vodafone Group, 1.1 per cent

Sell
1. Barclays, 5.1 per cent
2. Lloyds Banking Group, 4.4 per cent
3. RBS, 4.4 per cent
4. Xstrata, 3.1 per cent
5. Afren, 1.2 per cent
6. Centamin Egypt, 1.4 per cent
7. IQE, 1.2 per cent
8. MAN Group, 1.1 per cent
9. Tesco, 1 per cent
10. HSBC Holdings, 1 per cent