Bank stocks took a hit at the beginning of February after the Chancellor announced his intention to ‘electrify’ the ring-fence around UK banks and give regulators the power to break up any that fail to reform.

Unsurprisingly, UK bank stock stocks dominated investor trading activity during a month which also included annual results announcements and more Libor related scandal. Combined trades in Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland alone accounted for 43.5% of the top ten trades by TD clients.

Thomas Cook also flew on to people’s radars after announcing reduced first quarter losses on Thursday, 7th February. On the day of the announcement, Thomas Cook shares rose to 85.50 after closing the previous night at 71.50. During the same week there was a 49% rise in buys and 124% rise in sells of travel giant by TD clients looking to take advantage of the price gain.

Buys spotlight

Range Resources was the 10th most popular buy during February after beating analysts’ expectations and reporting 4th quarter profits of $53m, a turnaround from a $3m loss at the same time the previous year.

It is worth noting that the oil and gas explorer is listed on both the Australian Stock Exchange and UK Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The AIM market is designed to help smaller and growing companies boost capital, and received a boost of its own in the recent Budget with news that Government Stamp duty, which is charged at 0.5% on all UK stock purchases, will be removed from the purchase of AIM-listed shares with effect from April 2014.

Sells spotlight

In a month during which the horsemeat scandal hit the headlines, Tesco appears as the 9th most popular sell (but does not appear in the top ten buys). Figures released by research firm Kantar Worldpanel revealed that Tesco’s market share had dropped to 29.7% in the 12 weeks leading to the 17th February compared to 30.1% during the same period in 2012 year. However, they were also keen to point out this had more to do with the fact that Tesco did not have the same promotional offers to drive sales compared to last year.

The Top 10 TD client Buys and Sells for February 2013