On Monday, banking shares plummeted in response to the Government’s second bank bail out announcement, wiping 67 per cent off the value of RBS, taking their share price down to just 11.6p.

TD Waterhouse says its customers reacted so quickly to the chance of capitalizing on sinking share prices in the banking sector that it experienced the highest volume of share dealing this year.

The firm says that the most traded shares between 8am and 1pm were RBS, Barclays and Lloyds TSB, which accounted for 70 per cent of the total buys but just 34 per cent of the total sells made by TD Waterhouse share dealing customers.

This means that buyers of bank shares outnumbered sellers by almost four to one among retail investors on Monday.

“It’s not surprising to see an increase in trading activity in the banking sector today,” said Angus Rigby, CEO at TD Waterhouse in response to the surge in activity.

“There has been huge speculation about the size of losses at RBS and the impact this may have on other banks.”

Mr Rigby says that due to the fact that volatility has been “widespread across the sector” TD Waterhouse experienced one of its busiest days so far this year.

“Obviously, our main focus at present is to ensure our customers can continue to take advantage of the markets and trade quickly and confidently,” he said.

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