Director buying, buybacks surge for second week

THE buying by directors surged for the second straight week based on filings on the Singapore Exchange from Feb 27 to March 3 with 18 companies recording 30 purchases worth S$5.52 million. The figures were sharply up from the previous week's six firms, 12 purchases and S$5.73 million. There were no sales by directors last week.

Aside from directors, buyback activity rose for the second straight week with 10 companies posting 27 repurchases worth S$9.13 million. The number of firms and trades were up from the previous week's seven companies and 23 repurchases. The value, however, was sharply down from the previous week's turnover of S$20.97 million.

With no sales by directors, the bulk of the significant trades last week were purchases as firms and directors resumed buying following the increase in share prices. A significant portion of the acquisitions were also made following the announcement of earnings results. They included: Yanlord Land, Amara Holdings, GSS Energy Limited, Federal International, Halcyon Agri Corporation, Food Empire Holdings and Asian Pay Television Trust.