Buying increases, selling remains low

THE buying rose while the selling remained low based on filings on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) during the holiday-shortened week of Feb 16 to 18. A total of nine companies recorded 16 purchases worth S$22.8 million versus one firm with one disposal worth S$0.26 million. The buy figures were sharply up from the previous week's five-day totals of three companies, four purchases and S$3 million. There were no sales by directors in the previous week.

Aside from directors, the buyback activity rose last week with seven companies that posted 18 repurchases worth S$10.1 million. The number of firms was unchanged but the number of trades and value were up from the previous week's 11 transactions worth S$7.9 million.

The bulk of the trades last week were in firms that recently announced earnings results. There were buybacks in Pacific Century Regional Developments, Sembcorp Marine Limited and Goodland Group last week. On the directors' side, the buying was high in property plays with insider purchases in Perennial Real Estate Holdings, Oxley Holdings, and First Reit. Lastly, there were rare insider buys in Artivision Technologies after the stock fell by 17 per cent.