June witnessed the lead up to new Bank of England chief, Mark Carney, replacing outgoing Governor, Mervyn King on 1 July. During King’s tenure there was much talk of low interest rates; ever since the BoE introduced the 0.5% rate in March 2009.

Investors may ask ‘what does that mean for me?’. The fact is that low interest rates may benefit mortgage holders, but they hurt savers and investors. However, the last four years have also created opportunities for people interested in exploring forms of investing other than pure cash savings.

When you look at average returns on savings versus the FTSE 100’s performance it is easy to see where investors might be able to make gains.

During Mr King’s reign, the FTSE has actually risen by 52% from 3963.90 on 1 July 2003 to 6307.78 (at close on Monday 1 July). It is also important to note that the markets have had their ups and downs in this time, however this is over one and half times the return an investor might have seen on their savings had they invested in cash products paying base rates.

Buys spotlight:

• Continuing with the banking theme, Barclays (BARC) took the top spot in June – accounting for more than one in five (20.5%) Top Ten buys for the month.

• Vodafone Group (VOD), a company that also frequently appears in TD clients’ Top Ten UK equities tables, took third and sixth positions in the buys and sells respectively for the month of June 2013. TD clients appear to have taken the opportunity to buy and sell Vodafone stocks in the lead up to, and following, the June 23 Vodafone deal to buy Germany’s biggest cable company Kabel Deutschland. Vodafone accounted for 9.3% of Top Ten UK trades for the June period.

• In the international tables, The Bank of Ireland (BKIR) took second place in the buys with clients appearing to take advantage of the lower share price after it was announced that an inquiry is under way within the bank’s private banking division due to “possible irregularities”.

Sells spotlight:

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) continues to feature in the TD UK client buys and sells and topped the sells tables for the month of June 2013, accounting for 12.7% of buys and 28% of sells in the UK Top Ten trades and trading at a ratio of approximately 1:1.29.

Lloyds’ popularity suggests investors believe in the bank’s long term prospects and the expected IPO of 632 branches following its failure to sell them to the Co-operative Bank. Lloyds has a deadline of 30 November this year to complete the sale but has asked the European Commission for a two year extension.

The Top 10 TD client Buys and Sells for June 2013