Opinion | Directors step back on purchases but sales remain low

Directors eased up on the purchases of shares in their own companies, and selling remained low for a third straight week, filings to the stock exchange show for last week.

However, buyers still far outnumbered sellers, with 46 companies reporting 208 purchases worth HK$540 million by directors, while six companies advised of 17 director sales worth HK$101 million. The previous week's data showed that 59 companies reported 276 purchases worth HK$594 million.

On the selling side, the number of companies and trades were down from the previous week's eight companies and 30 disposals, but the sell value was sharply up from the previous week's HK$53 million.

Heavy price support in property stocks spilled over to other sectors during the week, with acquisitions in Bank of East Asia, West China Cement and TCL Multimedia Technology. On the flip side, the chairman of Changshouhua Food took profits on the shares he acquired last year, following a sharp gain in the share price since March.

Chairman David Li Kwok-po, non-executive director Peter Lee and Guoco Group moved in to support the share price of blue chip Bank of East Asia after the stock fell from HK$32.25 in March to below HK$29 last month.

Li recorded his first trades since October last year, with 150,000 shares purchased from June 26 to 28 at an average of HK$27.49 each. The trades boosted his stake to 66.955 million shares or 2.96 per cent of the issued capital. He previously bought 316,000 shares in October at an average of HK$28.96 each, and 1.29 million shares in August last year at an average of HK$28.40 each.