Stock Watch 5 April 2010

The Share Centre’s top 5 customer buys from the last 7 days:

1. BP – BP finding favour as this year’s ISA season draws to a close, strong yield and growth attracts.
2. Desire Petroleum – Investors still take a punt on Desire finding something other than rock in the Falklands.
3. Lloyds Banking Group – Bank that investors favored the most over the last 12 months.
4. BG Group – Receives plenty of press coverage last week after deal with Tokyo Gas.
5. Royal Dutch Shell – Oil flavor of the week for investors.


The Share Centre’s top 5 shares to follow:

1. Tesco lower Risk – International operations and lead position in the UK should continue to reward investors.
2. Alliance Trust Lower Risk – Wide variety of investment helps to add security to an investment.
3. Aviva Medium Risk – Good investment for a new ISA, strong yield and good growth potential.
4. Chloride Medium Risk – Results due soon and worth buying ahead and after results are issued.
5. Churchill Mining Higher Risk – Further activity in the share price recently could indicate something occurring soon.


Ratio of buys to sells = 59:41%

Top 5 most searched for companies on share.com


1. Barclays
2. RBS
3. Opsec security
4. Legal & General
5. Debenhams


The Share Centre’s Share of the Week
Company: Dignity   
Share price:  637p   
Sector:  General retailers
Recommendation:    BUY
Risk category:    Medium
Investment class: Growth
Opinion:
Dignity is the largest quoted provider of funeral and bereavement related services in the UK.

Figures for 2009 showed that despite a 5% fall in the number of funerals the company performed, Dignity still saw a 6% increase in sales.

Dignity’s strategy has been to acquire a number of family owned funeral directors to consolidate the fragmented market. They bought seven funeral businesses last year and have already added another two to their portfolio during 2010.

The state of the economy has not affected the average amount spent on cremations and the sales of memorial headstones have been positive. Good news for Dignity.

We recommend Dignity as a ‘buy’ for medium risk investors because the yield is steadily improving. The total dividend payout for 2009 was 12.1p, a 10% increase and another special dividend could be in the offing. The FTSE 250 company should also appeal to growth investors, because of the liking to acquisitions and positive sector performance.



THIS DATA IS PROVIDED BY GRAHAM SPOONER, INVESTMENT ADVISER AT THE SHARE CENTRE. THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OR AGREEMENT TO BUY OR SELL INVESTMENTS.

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2010-04-08 09:09:57 © Moneyextra.com