McGrath issued trading figures on Monday and the scrip promptly fell from $1.30 to as low as 86 cents on turnover that was 14 times the previous day's level.

Enter the chief John McGrath. He paid 90¢ a share and put $500,000 into the stock.

Non-executive director Daniel Petre paid the same price to increase his stake by 66 per cent: 111,111 shares that cost $100,000.

The pair were looking at paper profits of 24 per cent in a few days with the scrip yesterday fetching $1.11.

But the bigger picture on the share front as far as McGrath was concerned was that he took out $37 million when the group went public late last year at $2.10 a share.

More recently he's topped up with relatively small purchases: in March he bought 317,000 shares at $1.36 and now he's paid 90¢ a share.

Elsewhere among stocks that copped a hiding, Leigh Clifford, Qantas chairman, increased his stake by 9 per cent following severe share price weakness.

The scrip fell from $4.06 to as low as $3.32 following a statement from the group revealing weaker demand.

Clifford paid $3.38 a share and non-executive director Maxine Brenner outlaid $3.39.

XPD Soccer Gear Group, a sportswear group, has got a bit of a wriggle on in recent days moving from 13¢ to as high as 20¢.

Managing director Zhang Jiameng paid 14¢ and non-executive director Andrew Smith outlaid 13¢.

On the selling front, Thomas Price featured with the off-market disposal of a big chunk of NSX's capital at well above the market price.

NSX - operator of the tiny National Stock Exchange of Australia - announced yesterday that SHKL Group had nominated and recommended the appointment of three directors, all Shanghai residents.