Opinion | Sellers take spotlight as senior directors offload their shares

Director activity was high for a third consecutive week, with 58 companies recording 253 transactions worth HK$701 million based on exchange filings last week. The number of firms and trades were not far off from the previous week's 49 companies and 264 transactions.

The value, however, was sharply down from the previous week's turnover of HK$1.72 billion. Buyers outweighed sellers last week with 45 companies recording 203 insider purchases worth HK$671 million versus 14 firms with 50 disposals worth HK$30 million.

Aside from directors, buyback activity remained high, with 17 companies posting 84 repurchases worth HK$533 million. The figures were consistent with the previous week's 16 firms, 91 trades, and HK$520 million.

Sellers took the spotlight last week as several firms recorded first-time sales by high-level executives following sharp gains in share prices. Among the stocks that recorded initial disposals were Sun-King Power Electronics, Guangnan Holdings and HKT Trust and HKT Limited. Most of the stocks announced a loss or fall in first-half results in August.

Chie executive Gong Renyuan recorded his first on-market sale in electronics components and semiconductors manufacturer and distributor Sun-King Power since the stock was listed in October 2010 with 500,000 shares sold on Wednesday at 88 HK cents each. The trade reduced his holdings to 41.13 million shares or 3.02 per cent of the issued capital. The disposal was made on the back of a 76 per cent rebound in the share price since July from 50 HK cents. Despite the rebound in the share price, the counter is still down since February, from HK$1. Gong's sale price was lower than the initial public offering price of HK$1.93.

Sun-King Power announced its interim results in August with a loss of 21.8 million yuan (HK$27.6 million) versus a profit of 30.031 million yuan in the same period last year. The counter closed at 85 HK cents on Friday.