RECOVERY shares were favoured by private investors last year,

according to execution-only stockbroker ShareLink.

Though the most popular share for its 300,000 clients was BT the next

four were Asda, Ratners, Tarmac and British Aerospace.

ShareLink marketing director Nigel Bartram said that private investors

appeared to be ahead of institutions in anticipating a stock market

recovery.

''The buy/sell trend tilted strongly in favour of buying in the second

half of the year with the result that many clients moved in well ahead

of the year-end stock market surge,'' he said.