Director Dealings: Rowley bucks City's assessment of Promethean

EDUCATIONAL technology group Promethean World has had a disappointing start to life on the stock market.

Since it listed in March at 200p a share, the market value of the company, which specialises in interactive whiteboards for the classroom, has slumped. At one point last month the shares fell as low as 119p following interim results which were poorly received by the market.

They have since recovered a little and last week non-executive director Philip Rowley signalled his belief that the mark-down has been overdone. He bought 24,838 shares at 124.7p each and now holds 157,606 shares.

• Anil Agarwal, chairman of Indian mining group Vedanta, has increased his already substantial stake in the company. He bought 152,753 shares at 1,842p each and now holds 163.5 million shares, more than 61 per cent of the company.

• Two directors at decontamination equipment business Bioquell have upped their holdings. Chairman Nigel Keen bought 10,000 shares at 100p each to take his stake in the company to 72,270 shares. Chief executive Nicholas Adams bought 15,000 shares at the same price and now holds 810,000

• Paul Rackham, chairman of Property Recycling Group, has bought 25,000 shares at 11p each to increase his family's stake to 23.67 million.

• John Talbot, chairman of dry cleaning group Johnson, has bought 2.4 million shares in the company following strong results last week. He paid 18.5p for the shares and now holds around 6.2 million.

• The chairman and chief executive of gold mining group Petropavlovsk upped their stakes following interim results last week. Chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy bought 98,039 shares at 1,016p each through a company he is connected with. Chairman Peter Hambro bought 9,579 at a similar price.

• Frank Chapman, a non-executive director at financial services company London Capital Group Holdings, has sold 1.5 million shares at 113p each. He retains a stake of four million and has said he does not intend to sell any further shares for at least the next 12 months.

• Theresa Plummer-Andrews, a non-executive director of animation group DQ Entertainment, has bought her first stake in the company. She purchased 2,275 shares at 129p each.

• Several directors at investment business Evolution Group have increased their holdings following interim results last week. Chief executive Alex Snow and non-executive director Chris Chambers each bought 26,000 shares, and chairman Martin Gray bought 7,000. They each paid 80p for the shares.