Director Trades: These directors are still buying their gold stocks despite the spot price fall

• ASX gold stocks made up a significant portion of  directors’ trades
• Strong activity in West Africa-focused stocks with recent exploration
• Other traders predominantly came from the tech, retail and cannabis sectors

In the past few weeks, the spot gold price has dropped from its all time highs.

This has led to speculation over whether the rally of the last several months has ended.

A number of directors evidently beg to differ, having made big investments in their companies in recent days.

Gold director trades

Several of the companies in today’s list are West African focused. One of the bigger trades came from Hanjing Xu of Tietto Minerals (ASX:TIE) who bought $730,000 in a placement.

Tietto’s Abujar gold project in Côte d’Ivoire has been one of the more exciting in the region with gold grades coming in as high as 134.48g/t. The company has promised shareholders an updated resource next month.

Oklo Resources (ASX:OKU), with a project in neighbouring Mali has also been impressing investors. Simon Taylor bought just over $100,000 on market this week.

Another recent buyer into Oklo is $1bn Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG), which last month took a 9.8 per cent stake in $141m explorer.

As the Cardinal Resources (ASX:CDV) takeover finally began following a bidding war of several months, its directors sold out. Leading was Malik Easah, who sold $16.2 million, followed by Arthur Koimtsidis who sold $15.2 million.

Looking a bit closer to home, DGO Gold’s (ASX:DGO) Bruce Parncutt bought $172,500 off market while Mark Lochtenberg of Chilean-focused Equus Mining (ASX:EQE) bought $100,000 in a placement.

Tech & consumer

Among other trades, arguably the most notable was Myer’s (ASX:MYR) Margaret Cattermole who bought $100,000 on market.

But only a week later, she and colleague Julie Ann Morrison decided to stand down. The pair will not be replaced as the troubled retailer seeks to cut costs.

Virtually the only tourism stock that has gained in 2020 is transport operator SeaLink Travel Group (ASX:SLK) which has been able to thrive off its commuter services.

Christopher Smerdon and Lance Hockridge both bought on market – $500,000 and $121,500 respectively.

Only a few weeks after Bevan Slattery invested $2.5 million into HR tech stock intelliHR (ASX:IHR), Robert Bromage also chipped it – $338,460 in a rights issue that followed the Slattery-led placement.

Brett Paton, director of four-bagger betting stock PointsBet (ASX:PBH), chipped in again to the tune of $6.9 million as it continues to roll out in the US market.

Alastair Provan of Bell Potter parent company Bell Financial Group (ASX:BFG) bought nearly $250,000 on market.

Rounding out the noteworthy trades were Cann Group’s (ASX:CAN) Philip Jacobsen and Allan McCallum who bought $700,000 and $200,000 in a placement.

The stock was one of many Australian pot stocks to rally following the TGA’s announcement it would re-classify certain CBD oils and pills so they could bought over the counter without a prescription.

This was despite the company having not yet commented on the ruling or announcing any plans to launch new products as a consequence of the decision.