Sharp rise in director purchases

THE first full week of 2014 saw more buying by directors, with 14 companies recording 35 purchases worth $8.76 million - up sharply from the previous week's four-day totals of nine firms and 17 purchases valued at $1.38 million, based on Jan 6-10 filings on Singapore Exchange. Selling was low with just two companies makingthree disposals worth $2.48 million, near the previous week's two firms and four disposals. The sell value, although low, was up sharply from the previous week's sales worth $560,000.

Besides director trades, buyback activity among listed firms was high with 11 companies posting 21 repurchases - not far off from the previous week's 11 firms and 20 repurchases - worth $3.94 million. The buyback valuewas down sharply from the previous week's $7.6 million.

There were several significant corporate shareholder trades last week with buybacks in SembCorp Marine, Ho Bee Land and BreadTalk Group. On the directors' side, there were insider buys in Maxi-Cash Financial Services and Cordlife Group. Aside from the insider purchase in Cordlife Group, there was also an acquisition by FIL Ltd, which raised its interest to 9.05 per cent. On the substantial shareholders' front, there were key buys in Yanlord Land, Ascendas India Trust and Sarin Technologies.