The Insider | Buying rebounds as Evergrande drives up buyback value

Buying by directors rebounded while selling rose in the last week of July. A total of 37 companies recorded 180 purchases worth HK$288 million versus 12 firms with 34 disposals worth HK$234 million.

The number of companies and trades on the buying side were up from the previous week's 33 firms and 157 purchases. The buy value, however, was sharply down from the previous week's purchases worth HK$625 million. Sales were up from the previous week's nine companies, 31 disposals and HK$41 million.

Meanwhile, buyback activity fell with 12 companies posting 43 repurchases. The number of firms and trades were down from the previous week's 14 companies and 75 transactions.

Although the number of trades was sharply down last week, the buyback value amounted to a whopping HK$2.93 billion, which was more than double the previous week's turnover of HK$1.3 billion. The high value, however, was mainly due to Evergrande Real Estate Group as the company bought back HK$2.7 billion worth of shares last week.

Aside from Evergrande, there were significant purchases in Top Spring International, Xinyi Glass Holdings and Carrianna Group.

Buybacks by Evergrande in July amounted to 1.15 billion shares worth HK$5.47 billion. The buybacks, which accounted for 38 per cent of the stock's trading volume, were made from July 8 to 31 at HK$3.31 to HK$5.50 each or an average of HK$4.76 each. The stock closed at HK$5.13 on Friday.

Executive director David Lee Sai-kai recorded his first trade in property developer Top Spring International since April 2012 with 21,000 shares purchased on July 29 at HK$3.77 each.