Printer cashes $13m of paper

Wayne Sidwell, the man behind Wellcom Group, took a prominent position on the directors' trades front with his disposal of $13 million of stock.

With the sales his stake in the printing group decreased to 47.5 per cent and in recent days two fund managers increased their holdings.

Milford Asset Management of New Zealand surfaced with nearly 8 per cent of the capital and Colonial First State Asset Management bought nearly 2 million shares on Wednesday, taking its stake to about 5 per cent.

Wellcom's pre-tax earnings fell 22 per cent in the June year and the stockmarket is valuing the company at 13 times earnings.

A few weeks ago chairman Sidwell told shareholders the group had experienced flat economic conditions for the past three years and that the economic situation remained unchanged in the group's global markets.

Sidwell was unavailable on Friday to comment on his selling.

Elsewhere, various directors of PPK Group, including one Glenn Molloy, look to have relieved Warakirri Asset Management of shares at 60¢.

The scrip closed yesterday at 72¢. Nice.

Former Industrea chief Robin Levison was recently appointed executive chairman of PPK and the group now focuses on mining services.

Elsewhere, Peter Yates bought more MOKO Social Media at a hefty discount to prevailing market prices.

Leigh Clapham and Steven Vamos, non-executive directors of David Jones, opened their accounts, buying shares at about $2.68.

On Friday DJs reported marginally lower like-for-like first-quarter sales and forecast continued challenging trading conditions throughout the 2014 financial year.

The scrip closed 18¢ up at $2.90.

Elsewhere on the retail front, Frank Jones topped up his holding in Premier Investments.