Options exercise allows Gail Kelly to gain without the pain

Kelly collected options around the time she joined the bank in 2008 and this week she exercised some at $16.80 and sold shares into the market at $22.74.

She exercised nearly $5.4 million of paper, collected more than $560,000 worth of shares for nothing, and sold $3.4 million worth of shares on the market.

Westpac has not been the flashest conveyance in the market over the past two years or so as evidenced by one other disposal made by Kelly in late 2009. Then, she flogged $7 million worth of scrip, getting $23.57 a share.

Meanwhile, Scheuer over at Webjet peeled off 16 per cent of his stake and sold rather well, at least in the short term.

He sold at $3.45 a share and within a few days the scrip was fetching $3.05, though it recovered somewhat by yesterday's closing bell, to finish at $3.15.

Webjet has been one of the stars of the market in recent years, gaining 45 per cent compound or thereabouts over the past few years.

Overall, the scorecard for the week registered $10.6 million to $2.8 million in favour of sellers.

And, speaking of stocks that have notched up strong gains, Jumbo Interactive chief Mike Veverka has sold more shares.

The lottery operator last week said current-year tax-paid earnings would come in at about $5.9 million to $6.2 million up anywhere between 23 per cent and 29 per cent on last year's result.

At the start of the year the shares were fetching 39? Veverka sold at $1.44, but his disposals have been relatively small and he retains more than $13 million of stock.

Multi-director buying was evident in IRESS Market Technology, a market trading systems group.

The shares have fallen from $9.50 to current levels of $6.22 over the past year or so, placing them at about 13 times "adjusted"earnings.

Five directors bought stock following the annual meeting held last week.

Chairman Peter Dunai told the meeting that short-term growth looked weak but that the group had a strong financial position with no debt and core businesses that generated stable healthy earnings and cash flow.

"In due course operating conditions will turn and this, combined with the results of investments we are making now, should provide a sound basis for medium-term growth," he said.