THE sharp rise in the share price of stock market darling Inter-Roller Engineering has not deterred an independent director from picking up more shares on the open market.

Singapore Exchange filings show that Mr Haider Mohamedally Sithawalla bought 9,000 shares at $1.63 apiece yesterday, raising his direct stake to 945,000 shares.

Stocks of Inter-Roller, which specialises in airport and industrial logistics systems, have already shot up 1.14 times in value since the start of the year.

Yesterday, it closed at a record high of $1.65, after gaining three cents on volume of 688,000 shares.

Despite Mr Sithawalla's ringing endorsement, other investors have been cashing in gains.

Two weeks ago, a substantial shareholder, Winmark Investments, sold 300,000 shares at an average price of $1.4583 a share, paring its direct stake to 2.41 per cent from 2.67 per cent. Its deemed interest of 6.42 per cent stayed unchanged.

Inter-Roller has been on a roll as cities across the region have been spending huge amounts to build new airports and upgrade existing ones.

Research houses with 'buy' calls on Inter-Roller include DBS Vickers, UOB Kay Hian and CIMB-GK.

The firm has been winning tenders around the region. Two weeks ago, it announced it had won contracts worth $83 million for baggage-handling systems for airports in China, Britain and Asean, including Singapore.

《The Straits Times》