Financial stocks remain in the spotlight

Buys in total increased by 44% on last week as the FTSE 100 finished the week at 5,718, according to figures from TD Waterhouse.

Lloyds Banking Group was both the most bought and sold stock in the week to Tuesday 2 August ahead of its results which were announced today.

The part nationalised lender reported losses of £3.3 billion for the period, almost entirely driven by payments it will have to make to customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance.

Barclays was not far behind, taking second spot in both the buys and sells tables.

Darren Hepworth, trading and customer services director at the broker, said:

"Analysts broadly welcomed Barclays' interim results, which were released on Tuesday, as they exceeded expectations, despite the company's profit having dropped 38% during the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2010."

Pre-tax profits at the bank for the first half of 2011 totalled £2.6 billion, a fall of 33% from the same period last year.

Most of the bank's profits came from Barclays Capital, its investment banking arm.

Royal Bank of Scotland , which is set to report its own interim results tomorrow, dropped from third to fifth place in the buys table and remained in third position in the sells.

Away from the banks, Aviva surged to third place in the buys table in the week.

The spike in activity was driven by an expectation that the insurance giant would announce operating profits for the first six months of 2011 in excess of the £1.27 billion made in the same period last year.

Aviva announced operating profits of £1.38 billion for the first six months of 2011 today.