THE buying was high while sales activity was low among directors and substantial shareholders during the holiday-shortened week of Feb 4 to 6 with 33 firms recording 83 purchases and only seven companies with 21 disposals. The sentiment was also positive among fund managers with 12 institutions that posted 41 acquisitions versus seven asset managers with 18 disposals. Despite the short trading week, there were several significant trades in the local market last week.

On the buying side, investors should watch out for Rokko Holdings, Inter-Roller Engineering, Keppel Land, and Transview Holdings. On the selling side, investors should trade with caution on Gems TV Holdings as a substantial shareholder reduced its stake by 32 per cent at sharply below its purchase prices.

Inter-Roller Engineering Deutsche Bank AG became a substantial shareholder of airport logistics systems builder Inter-Roller Engineering on Jan 31 following the purchase of 10.2 million shares at 52 cents each. The trade increased its direct holdings by 76 per cent to 23.8 million shares or 7.1 per cent of the issued capital.

DB's entry price was sharply lower than Stark Investments (Hong Kong) Limited's initial filing price in December 2007. Stark Investments reported an initial filing on Dec 17, 2007 of 929,000 shares at 63 cents each, which boosted its deemed holdings to 17.1 million shares or 5.1 per cent. That initial filing was made on the back of the 28 per cent decline in the share price since the second week of October 2007 from 88 cents.

There were also buys by Winmark Investments Pte Ltd and chairman Lim Yong Wah in December 2007.

Winmark Investments picked up 160,000 shares on Dec 6, 2007 at 62 cents each, which increased its stake to 25.8 million shares or 7.8 per cent. The group previously acquired 250,000 shares on Aug 10, 2007 at an estimated price of 81 cents each.

The purchases by Winmark Investments since August 2007 were significant as the group was bearish from April 2005 to July 2007 with sales totalling 2.2 million shares.

Chairman Lim Yong Wah, on the other hand, purchased 150,000 shares on Dec 3, 2007 at 58 cents each, which increased his stake to 5.5 million shares. He also bought 280,000 shares in second half of November 2007 at 66 cents to 58 cents each.

Prior to those trades, the chairman sold 400,000 shares on July 12, 2007 at $1.29 each. The stock closed at 53.5 cents on Feb 6.

《The Business Times》