Share Dealing News Lloyds Shares Boosted By Profit Predictions

Written by Editorial Team

26 March 2010 / by Andy Davies

Shares in Lloyds Banking Group have proved increasingly popular with investors at TD Waterhouse as they topped the best buys, while they continues to dominant the sells this week.

Knocking Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) off the top spot, Lloyds’ shares moved up one place to become the best buy of the week after announcing that it expects to return to profit this year, while the bank also retained its place as the top sell in the past seven days.

Commenting, Angus Rigby, chief executive officer at TD Waterhouse said: “Lloyds accounted for more than half the buy and sell trades in bank stocks during the week, following the trading update issued on Friday.

“The upbeat statement also buoyed sentiment around the other UK banks, with Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays maintaining their positions amongst the most popular stocks with TD Waterhouse customers.”

The share dealing house has also revealed that for the first time since February, buy trades exceeded sells by 15 per cent as the FTSE rose ahead of the Budget and amid optimism that the economy is “rebounding from the worst global economic slump since World War Two”.

Meanwhile, investors have continued to show an appetite for mining and energy stocks, in particular Desire Petroleum. Mr Rigby explains: “Desire shares were the third most-popular buy trade among TD Waterhouse customers, while Rockhopper shares were the ninth, amid ongoing speculation Desire will report that it found oil in the South Atlantic, boosting prospects for other strikes elsewhere in the region.”

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