The Straits Times / The Business Times News on Cosco

Directors' Trades
Insider pares stake in Cosco

INSIDERS have almost stopped selling shares in Cosco Corp.

The only exception is Mr Zhou Xie Dong, director of its China unit, Cosco Shipyard Group (CSG).

Records kept by Shareinvestor.com show he sold 100,000 Cosco shares at $1.65 apiece on Sept 20 and another 43,000 shares at $1.66 each on Sept 29.

Following the two sales, his stake has now been pared to 257,000 shares.

Besides Mr Zhou, other parties who sold Cosco shares recently included Madam Mina Chan - the wife of independent director and former MP Wang Kai Yuen - and Mr Wang Zai Zhong, another CSG director.

But dealers have noted that their sales were easily absorbed in the market, as about nine million Cosco shares are traded daily, on average.

One dealer said that interest in Cosco has stayed red-hot because of the fresh issues of covered warrants on the stock.

'New warrant issuers are coming into the market and they are all chasing after the same few hot stocks like Cosco,' said a dealer.

And Cosco's share price may have been chased up by warrant issuers buying the mother shares to 'cover' the risks associated with issuing covered warrants on the stock, he added.

Yesterday, Cosco climbed four cents to a new high of $1.73 on a volume of 17.9 million shares.

The most actively traded Cosco covered warrant was one issued by Merrill Lynch

It ended 2.5 cents up at 26 cents on a hefty volume of 15.7 million units.

GOH ENG YEOW