Buying continued to dominate director share dealing over the extended Christmas period, and nowhere more so than at Aim-listed fire service equipment oddity London Securities, where chairman Jacques Gaston Murray has been driving the share price relentlessly upwards by continually buying any shares that he can get his hands on. Having started off with a 2,500 purchase at 495p on 4 December, he has sent the share price soaring to 825p through repeated small purchases between then and now. He now holds in excess of 98 per cent of the company through his various vehicles.

IT Action

Buying activity was also in evidence at IT investment and advisory firm Interregnum, where no less than five company directors made the decision to gorge themselves over the festive season. Roger Jeynes, Kenneth Olisa, Graham Ranson and first time buyers Ian Taylor (the former Tory DTI minister with responsibility for IT) and Martin Cooper all piled in prior to the New Year, picking up between 5,800 and 38,500 shares at 26p-27p. However, the market remained nonplussed at this co-ordinated buying activity, and marked the stock down to 25.5p after the spree, which followed an optimistic but rather vague trading statement.

Also in a positive mood was Fayrewood non-executive Peter Hammett, who bought 15,700 shares at 62p, just before the completion of the £17.4 million acquisition of Spanish computer hardware distributor UMD.

At financial software firm Financial Objects, non-executive Martin Hayman was tempted enough to spend close to £200,000 on 23,500 shares, at a price of 79.5p, half of them for his PEP. On the very same day the company said that it was going to make a £850,000 provision in its accounts for potential 'bad debt'. Though it added that, excluding this, profits for the year to December were going to be in line with market expectations, the shares edged back to 73.5p. The results are due out on 13 March.

Both Terence Chapman and NetBenefit attracted director buying over the period, with the former's Michael Le Houx picking up 100,000 shares at 31p and the latter's John Parcell backing up claims that his company does not require an emergency rights issue with a 300,000 buy at 13p.

Support, Property and Building buys

Many construction and support services firms are still reporting buoyant activity, and indeed there has been plenty of buying from directors in these areas. At housebuilder McCarthy and Stone as well as five directors agreeing to invest their cash bonuses in company shares another ex-Tory cabinet minister, this time Sir George Young, decided to buy 2,000 more shares at a price of 293p. Another knight of the realm and company non-executive, outsourcing services provider Parkman's Sir Michael Lyons (ex-head of Birmingham City Council) snapped up an extra 3,000 shares at an average of £1.65. This was after his broker made an error and bought two tranches of 2,500 shares instead of one.

Feeling bullish was Wiggins' colourful chief executive Oliver Iny, who moved to pick up 100,000 of the airport operator and property developer's depressed shares at a price of 16p. They have since moved ahead to 17.5p.

Similar inside attention was paid to retail interiors and science laboratory firm Havelock Europa, whose chairman, Michael Kennedy, bought 100,000 shares at 28.5p, pricing the shares at a two-year prospective p/e of under three.

On Aim, landscaping and forestry firm fountains non-executive John Sinclair bought 2,000 shares at 127p on 7 January while Brent Fitzpatrick of oilfield services minnow MOS International picked up 30,000 of his company's shares at 1.5p apiece on 4 January. Directors of European casino and property concern Probus Estates and wannabe on-line property broker First Property Online also bought shares.

There was a spurt of buying at Jewish media group Totally. On 27 December, in another co-ordinated manoeuvre, each of Richard Brenner, Daniel Levitt and Andrew Margolis acted to hoover up exactly 129,769 shares at 1.75p. They are now valued at 2.5p apiece.

Trash to Cash

Last word goes to Christmas tip favourite Universal Salvage's Barrie Hobbs, who probably had a very merry Christmas after exercising options over 75,000 shares granted by the vehicle salvage firm on Christmas Eve 1998. Having cost him just under £32,000 to buy, the 60,000 shares that he then sold on added the princely sum of £287,100 to the Hobbs family coffers, leaving £71,775 of shares in the executive's no doubt warm hands.