Buying stays low; no selling by directors

THE buying was low for the second straight week with 10 companies recording 23 purchases worth S$2.5 million based on filings on Singapore Exchange in the first week of February. The figures were consistent with the previous week's nine firms, and 19 purchases worth S$3.06 million. On the selling side, there were no sales by directors last week which was not much of a drop from the one company, two disposals and S$0.04 million worth of sales in the previous week.

Meanwhile the buyback activity plunged for the second straight week with a paltry three firms, and 13 repurchases worth S$0.456 million. The figures were sharply down from the previous week's six companies, and 20 trades worth S$1.63 million. The low buybacks and insider trades in the past two weeks were likely due to the upcoming busy reporting season from March to April as directors and listed companies are prohibited from trading during the one-month period prior to the announcement of earnings results.

Construction and property plays dominated the trading last week with buybacks in Lian Beng Group, insider buys in First Sponsor Group, institutional shareholder purchases in Suntec Reit and City Developments and a fund manager sale in Yanlord Land. Meanwhile, there was a rare insider buy in tech-play M1 following the sharp fall in its share price. Lastly, there were fund manager purchases in water treatment solutions provider SIIC Environment Holdings and initial filing in food products manufacturer Petra Foods last week.