THE buying plunged after heavy purchases for four straight weeks while the selling among directors rebounded based on filings on the Exchange in the fourth week of June. Although the buying fell and the selling picked up, buyers outweighed sellers with 18 companies that recorded 29 purchases worth S$1.86 million versus four firms with seven disposals worth S$0.83 million. The buy figures were sharply down from the previous week's 25 companies, 54 purchases and S$9.66 million. The sales, on the other hand, were up from the previous week's three firms, three disposals and S$0.51 million.

Aside from directors, the buyback activity plunged last week with 13 companies that posted 45 repurchases worth S$29.9 million. The figures were sharply down from the previous week's 18 firms, 63 trades and S$58.8 million.

There were several significant buyback and director trades last week. Keong Hong Holdings bought back for the first time since October 2014 after the stock rebounded by 26 per cent. On the directors' side, there were buys in Mencast Holdings, Japfa Ltd, CEI Contract Manufacturing and Oxley Holdings following the fall in their share prices. On the negative side, there were rare director sales in Saizen Reit, Riverstone Holdings and ComfortDelGro Corporation last week.