Buyback activity stays high

BUYING fell for the second straight week while selling among directors plunged, according to Singapore Exchange filings for the holiday-shortened April 14-17 week . Five companies made six purchases worth $500,000 versus two firms with three disposals worth $60,000. The figures were sharply down from the previous week's five-day totals of 12 companies, 20 purchases and $6.4 million and four firms, nine disposals and $940,000.

Buyback activity remained high with five companies posting 16 repurchases worth $3.53 million, not far off from the previous week's five companies and 18 transactions but the value fell sharply (previous week: $19.26 million).

Popular Holdings

The publisher and bookstore operator bought back for the first time since August 2013 with 5.194 million shares purchased (April 14-17) at an average of 24.4 cents each. The trades, which accounted for 70 per cent of the stock's trading volume, were made on the back of the 13 per cent drop in the share price since September 2013 from 28 cents. The group acquired 24.959 million shares (Jan-Aug 2013) at 24-28 cents each or an average of 25.7 cents and 1.836 million shares on Dec 20, 2012, at 23 cents. The trades since December 2012 are the group's first repurchases since buybacks were introduced by the local stock exchange in June 1999. On March 14, the company announced a 30.8 per cent drop in third-quarter profit to $8.141 million while earnings in the first nine months fell by 33.2 per cent to $13.422 million (Thursday's cl…