Director dealings: Rurelec ready to power ahead after its return to profit

The firm also said it will consider the possibility of paying a special dividend to shareholders once an arbitration claim against the Bolivian government is settled.

Rurelec had launched arbitration proceedings last year to secure compensation from Bolivia after its interest in Empresa Guaracachi, an independent power generation firm, was nationalised.

The company reported an operating profit for the year of 612,000, compared with an operating loss of 1.3 million in 2009.

Following the figures, managing director Peter Earl bought 250,000 shares at 9p each to increase his stake to 500,000 shares.

n David Dey, a non-executive director at electronic payments group Monitise, has bought 35,720 shares at 28p each to take his holding up to 603,878 shares.

The company recently announced a five-year contract with Visa to enable its customers to make payments from their mobile phones.

• Neil Johnson, chairman of model trains group Hornby, has doubled his holding in the group with the purchase of 50,000 shares at 139p each.

• Kate Swann, chief executive of newsagent WH Smith, has bought her first shares in engineering group Babcock International, which she recently joined the board of as a non-executive director. Swann purchased 5,000 shares at 688p each

• George Turner, executive vice president at hotels group InterContinental, has sold 35,182 shares at 1,180p each. He still retains a stake of 175,637 shares.

• Peter Phillips, chief financial officer of bus-builder Optare, bought 500,000 shares at 2.95p each to take his holding up to 1.5 million shares.

• Robert Adair, chairman of property group Terrace Hill, has upped his already substantial stake.

He bought 100,000 shares at 23.25p each for his pension fund.

He now holds more than 130 million shares in the group, which has seen its shares rise by around 20 per cent over the past 12 months.