23 April 2010 / by Lois Avery
Volcanic disruptions from Iceland have helped British Airways jump into the top ten UK retailers buys and sells at TD Waterhouse this week.
And for the first time in five weeks, sells edged ahead of buys increasing 87%.
Angus Rigby, CEO at TD Waterhouse said “British Airways entered the top ten buys this week, at number eight, following the six day flight ban affecting all airlines in Northern Europe due to the volcanic ash from Iceland. Travel disruption continued after the aviation ban was lifted on Wednesday (21 April), with airlines estimating it could take weeks to return to normal service.
“BA shares fell steadily after the International Air Transport Association estimated five days of disruption might cost airlines £1.1bn and analysts suggested that larger carriers would suffer more than budget airlines due to the higher costs associated with assisting passengers and the proportionately larger number of cancelled flights.”
However, the banking sector continued to dominate with Lloyds Banking Group, RBS and Barclays holding the top three positions in both buys and sells. Although RBS overtook last week’s number one Lloyds to take top spot in both buys and sells.
Angus Rigby, added: “This followed a report yesterday that the International Monetary Fund was proposing that all banking institutions would pay a bank levy to fund future bank bailouts, subject to an additional tax on profits and pay.”
Tesco leapt into fifth place on the buys table after pretax profits rose 8.9 per cent to £3.18bn and following last week’s success the mining sector’s most heavily traded stock Xstrata fell from third place to fourth.
© Fair Investment Company Ltd