Carluccio’s finance director Frank Bandura has taken another helping of shares in the Italian restaurant firm.

Bandura, who joined Carluccio’s in 1999, after working at Pizza Hut and PepsiCo, acquired 48,000 ordinary shares at 52p each, paying a total of just under £25,000. He now holds 178,600 ordinary shares, or 0.31% of the firm.

Carluccio’s has been bullish in the face of the economic downturn. Continued expansion helped the chain to serve up a 14% rise in profits in December.

In the 53 weeks to September 28, pre-tax profits totalled £5.6m compared with £4.9m in the 52 weeks to September 23 the previous year, as turnover climbed to £64.1m from £53.3m.

Carluccio’s said the results were helped by six new openings, including restaurants in Leicester and Bristol, and the first one under franchise in Dublin. Overseas expansion is to continue with franchise agreements signed for six countries in the Middle East.

Following the results announcement, broker KBC Peel Hunt said Carluccio’s was in the “enviable position of having net cash and being able to fully fund its roll-out programme”.

The chief executive of Eurasian Natural Resources, Johannes Sittard, took advantage of a slight rally in the resources company’s share price to offload more than £800,000 in shares. He sold 250,000 at 325p each leaving him with a holding of 1.6m shares.

Shares in Kazakhstan-focused ENRC, which is the world’s largest ferro-alloy producer and one of the biggest iron-ore exporters, have fallen sharply in the past year in line with tumbling commodity prices.

However, the shares are up from lows below 200p late last year, which compares with a high of £15.35 in the past year.

In November, ENRC said it was cutting back production and spending during the fourth quarter after the sharp slowdown in the global economy hit demand for the resources it produces.

Sittard joined ENRC in 2001, having been president of ISPAT International, now Mittal Steel.

Aside from metal production, ENRC has a large energy division, which provides coal and energy both for its own operations and to third parties and which supplied about 16% of Kazakhstan’s electricity in 2007.

Directors have in-depth knowledge of their businesses so it can pay to track their moves. Every week Digitallook.com reveals those bosses who have bought or sold big stakes

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