Director buying stays low for 3rd week in a row

THE buying was low for the third straight week while there were no sales by directors for the second straight week based on filings on the Singapore Exchange during the holiday shortened week of Feb 10-12. A total of eight companies recorded 11 insider purchases worth S$1.3 million. The number of companies was not far off from the previous week's five-day total of 10 firms while the number of purchases and value were sharply down from the previous week's 23 acquisitions worth S$2.51 million.

Meanwhile, the buyback activity rebounded sharply after plunging for two straight weeks with four companies that posted 11 repurchases worth S$3.32 million. The number of companies and value were up from the previous week's three firms and S$460,000 while the number of repurchases was slightly down from the previous week's 13 transactions.

Despite the short trading week, there were several significant corporate shareholder trades last week with buybacks in Lian Beng Group and Singapore Exchange, and insider buys in Global Premium Hotels, Perennial Real Estate Holdings, CEI Contract Manufacturing and OSIM International. On the funds' side, The Capital Group Companies recorded its first sale in ComfortDelGro Corporation.