Director Dealings: Rok bottom for shares

The market value of the company, which has significant interests in Scotland, is still more than 70% down on its 12-month high.

Despite the gloom in the construction sector, there has been more positive news from the company in recent weeks including the winning of 11m worth of contracts in the Highlands.

Directors at the company appear to believe the current share price doesn't reflect its prospects and have upped their stakes.

Finance director Ashley Martin bought 113,000 shares at 22.25p each to lift his stake to 578,000 shares.

Chief executive Garvis Snook bought 50,000 shares and now holds 549,000.

Chairman Stephen Pettit and chief operating officer Rob Olorenshaw also bought almost 40,000 shares between them.

Ross King, a non-executive director at Edinburgh-based Wolfson Microelectronics, has more than trebled his stake in the group with two purchases.

King bought 151,000 shares at around 80p each and now holds 168,000 shares in the group, whose market value has increased by more than 10% in the past month.

Andrew Varley, property director at retailer Next, reduced his stake after a trading update.

He disposed of 10,000 shares at 1,234p each to leave him with just under 70,000 shares.

Shares in the group rose last week after it said profit forecasts remained in line with expectations despite a fall in sales.

Jorge Cosmen, a non-executive director of transport group National Express, has upped his stake for the second time in a fortnight.

He purchased 190,000 shares at 503.5p each to add to the 173,000 he bought in December.

Peter Boycott, chairman of mining group Anglo Pacific, has bought 65,000 shares at 100p each to lift his stake to 3.2 million shares.

David Fitzsimmons, chief executive of wind farm developer Novera Energy, has bought 100,000 shares at 35p each.