LONDON -- Hot news and a nose for a bargain drove the retail clients of stockbroker TD Direct Investing to hit the "buy" button this morning, with the top three shares all comprising highly topical trades impelled by news flow.
First up: troubled FTSE 250 coal miner Bumi
With its shares hit in recent times by falling coal prices and allegations of accounting irregularities and industrial espionage and spying, Bumi hasn't had a good few months.
No longer. Its shares soared 52% this morning as investors piled in, hoping it would be bought out by the Bakries. The result? Bumi was the single-most popular purchase by the retail clients of TD Direct Investing's between the market's opening and noon.
Next up: insurer Direct Line
Pointing to the insurer's strong brand, observers had expected the shares to rise strongly. In the event, they gained 3% or so to 181 pence, making the share the second-most popular buy among TD Direct Investing's retail clients this morning, with investors seemingly not put off by fears of clampdowns on some of motor insurance's murkier practices. A bigger worry is the overhang of shares still held by RBS and due to come to market by the end of 2014.
Third-up: Tesco
Are investors warming to the idea that recent falls have been overdone? Possibly. But also pertinent is the fact that the "ex-dividend" record date for shares is tomorrow -- enabling buyers today to lock in a 4.63 pence per-share dividend, payable on Dec. 21.
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