Public records from the BSE show that between October 15 and 30, 2020 Turnstar Holdings managing director, Gulaam Abdoola and his close associates bought 137,522 shares of the property group worth more than P307,500 on four different occasions. Turnstar’s shares had fallen to an annual low of P2.20, but rose 11% after the director and associate purchases. At Choppies, meanwhile, CEO Ramachandran Ottapathu and founder Farouk Ismail bought about 18.4 million shares between October 23 and 28, at a combined value of more than P11 million. The regional grocer’s shares, however, remained at 60 thebe, the level to which they fell after Choppies was reinstated to trading on the BSE in July. Market analysts said the purchase of shares by directors could simply be them taking advantage of the lower price of their companies’ shares or an effort to show confidence in the value of their stock.
“However, the BSE needs to carefully look into the transactions and check whether brokers possibly sidelined other bidders in preference for the directors’ dealings,” a market analyst told BusinessWeek.
