Directors' share-buying spree stretches into fifth straight week
Department store operator, blue-chip utilities and property group among insider trades
Directors' purchases of shares in their own companies rose for a fifth straight week and selling fell, based on filings to the stock exchange for the holiday-shortened week of March 25 to 28.
A total of 23 companies recorded 102 purchases worth HK$504 million versus nine companies that reported 20 disposals worth HK$14.7 million. The number of companies and purchases were up from the previous week's five-day totals of 22 companies and 86 trades, while the value was not far off the previous week's acquisitions valued at HK$540 million.
The number of sales transactions and their value was sharply down from the previous week's 44 disposals worth HK$49 million.
On the buy side, chairman Michael Kadoorie and non-executive director Ronald McAulay picked up 5.93 million CLP Holdings shares worth HK$399 million from March 21 to 26 at an average price of HK$67.36 each. The trades raised insider purchases in the utility company since February 26 to 28.1 million shares worth HK$1.885 billion at an average of HK$67.00 each.
The acquisitions in the past five weeks accounted for 26 per cent of the blue chip's trading volume.
Blue-chip utility Hong Kong and China Gas also reported insider purchases, with non-executive director Poon Chung-kwong picking up 60,000 shares on March 22 at HK$22.25 each. The trade increased his holdings by 113 per cent to 113,000 shares and was made on the back of a 45 per cent rise in the share price since October 2011 from HK$15.31.