Sainsbury CFO keeps the faith as shares slide

A round-up of the biggest director deals today so far.

Sainsbury's Chief Financial Officer John Rogers bought £50,000-worth of shares in the firm on the same day the company unveiled a disappointing period of trading.

Like-for-like (LFL) sales in the 12 weeks to June 9th were up 1.4% on the corresponding period of last year, below market expectations of growth of between 1.6% and 2.0%.

Total sales for what is the first quarter of the supermarket chain's fiscal year were up 3.6% year-on-year, or 3.8% excluding fuel.

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Growth may have disappointed some analysts but it knocked Tesco's figures into a cocked hat; on Monday, Tesco had announced a 1.5% LFL decline in sales (excluding VAT and petrol).

Rogers bought 17,850 shares at 280.14p each.

Enquest, the FTSE 250 North Sea oil and gas firm, has announced that Double A, a discretionary trust in which the extended family of Chief Executive Amjad Bseisu have a beneficial interest, has purchased 564,893 shares at 116.50p a pop.

The £658,100 purchase takes Double A's stake in the company to 8.81%, equal to around 70.7m shares.

At the end of last month EnQuest signed an agreement with the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) under which the EnQuest will farm out a 35% in its Alma and Galia oil field developments to KUFPEC.

In return, KUFPEC will invest around $500m (£300m) in cash, which includes $182m in future contributions for past costs, as well as KUFPEC's direct share of the development costs.

Bseisu said at the time: "With start up planned for late next year, the project team is well advanced in the execution phase and our first Alma well has reached total depth with good results."

Top Director Buys

EnQuest (ENQ)

Director name: Mr Amjad Bseisu

Amount purchased: 564,893 @ 116.50p

Value: £658,100

North Atlantic Smaller Companies Inv Trust (NAS)

Director name: Mr Christopher H B Mills

Amount purchased: 9,853 @ 925.00p

Value: £91,140

Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO)

Director name: Mr David Morrison

Amount purchased: 6,000 @ 1,105.00p

Value: £66,300

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY)

Director name: Mr John Rogers

Amount purchased: 17,850 @ 280.14p

Value: £50,005

CLS Holdings (CLI)

Director name: Mr Sten A Mortstedt

Amount purchased: 2,993 @ 595.00p

Value: £17,808

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY)

Director name: Lord Norman Blackwell

Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 28.59p

Value: £14,295

Top Director Sells

Great Portland Estates (GPOR)

Director name: Mr Toby Courtauld

Amount sold: 96,597 @ 365.94p

Value: £353,487

Great Portland Estates (GPOR)

Director name: Mr Toby Courtauld

Amount sold: 61,908 @ 365.94p

Value: £226,546

Great Portland Estates (GPOR)

Director name: Mr Neil Thompson

Amount sold: 61,908 @ 365.94p

Value: £226,546

Beazley (BEZ)

Director name: Mr Adrian Cox

Amount sold: 115,634 @ 135.90p

Value: £157,147

Mid Wynd International Inv Trust (MWY)

Director name: Mr P M S Barron

Amount sold: 5,000 @ 231.00p

Value: £11,550