INDEPENDENT Newspapers director Mr Brendan Hopkins has realised over £678,000 after buying shares at an option price and then selling the shares into the market at the current price. Mr Hopkins bought 265,000 shares at the option price of 81 1/2p and then sold them in the market at 337 1/2p to realise £678,400. He retained a total of 90,581 Independent shares.

In another options related transaction, Allied Irish Banks director Mr Michael Buckley bought 50,000 shares at an option price of 179p at a total cost of £89,500. He then sold 23,000 shares into the market at 508 1/2p each to realise £116,955 and retained 27,000 shares which provided a paper gain of £90,450.