Melrose director increases stake after positive update

A round-up of the biggest director deals today so farMiles Templeman, Senior Non-Executive Director of Melrose Industries, the FTSE 100 industrial conglomerate, has added £152,400-worth of shares to his stake in the company one day after it reported revenue was one per cent ahead in the year-to-date. Templeman, who is also the non-executive Chairman of Shepherd Neame, bought 60,000 shares at 254p each, increasing his holding to 692,343. The group also said both headline profit and operating margin were up on last year. Divisionally, the Lifting business performed in line with expectations; after a slow start to the year sales in the period recovered to be only slightly down compared to the same period last year. The profit performance for the Energy division for the period was flat compared with 2012, with sales being 1.0% lower. The group as a whole has delivered an encouraging performance, Melrose said, and is "confident of meeting expectations and improving performance this year". Top Director BuysGVC Holdings (GVC) Director name: Mr Kenneth AlexanderAmount purchased: 87,000 @ 287.50p Value: £250,125Serco Group (SRP) Director name: Mr Christopher HymanAmount purchased: 34,190 @ 625.16p Value: £213,742Melrose Industries (MRO) Director name: Mr Miles TemplemanAmount purchased: 60,000 @ 254.00p Value: £152,400Persimmon (PSN) Director name: Mr Jonathan DavieAmount purchased: 10,000 @ 1,089.00p Value: £108,900Serco Group (SRP) Director name: Mr Andrew JennerAmount purchased: 17,384 @ 625.16p Value: £108,678London Capital Group Holdings (LCG) Director name: Mr Mark SladeAmount purchased: 175,000 @ 37.00p Value: £64,750President Energy (PPC) Director name: Mr David JenkinsAmount purchased: 50,000 @ 21.00p Value: £10,500Top Director SellsWhitbread (WTB) Director name: Mr Christopher RogersAmount sold: 90,191 @ 2,644.54p Value: £2,385,137Northbridge Industrial Services (NBI) Director name: Mr Michael DodsonAmount sold: 100,000 @ 370.00p Value: £370,000Smiths News (NWS) Director name: Mr Jonathan BuntingAmount sold: 75,000 @ 181.86p Value: £136,395