Hong Kong company directors go on buying spree amid heavy trade

For the second week running, director activity in Hong Kong was high with 47 companies recording 193 transactions worth HK$633 million, according to exchange filings from January 13 to 17. The figures, however, were down from the previous week's 54 firms, 211 trades and HK$814 million.

Buyers outweighed sellers with 31 companies recording 124 purchases worth HK$390 million against 18 firms with 69 disposals worth HK$243 million.

Buy-back activity was low with only 13 companies posting 45 repurchases worth HK$86 million, down sharply from the previous week's 19 firms, 91 trades and HK$222 million.

The buying was spread across several sectors with buy-backs in Fairwood and China Resources and Transportation and director purchases in China Flavors & Fragrances and Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

Fast-food chain Fairwood picked up where it left off in August last year with 110,000 shares purchased from January 10 to 15 at an average of HK$15.61 each. The trades, which accounted for 14 per cent of the stock's trading volume, were made on the back of the 7 per cent drop in the share price since September last year.

The group previously acquired 540,000 shares from June to August last year at an average of HK$16.04 each and 3.1 million shares from May 2010 to April 2012 at an average of HK$10.84 each.

The stock closed at HK$15.74 on Friday.