They may be buying to lend more, who knows what these big guys are doing. From today's trades, 10m shares were dumped all day down to $4.54 and then 1M buy towards the close to $4.64 looks a lot like someone was shorting heavily. The market was down but there was some good news about AOI getting the first ever Chinese reserve certification which gives higher hope that the gas field will be developed and there is a $4.70 cash offered for the shares plus 1 Dart share. That is why I guessed someone might have sniffed something in the wind about the offer. It is always the insiders who got the first bite, then it is all over the media and then the company will make an announcement. Personally I don't really care that much if the whole deal is off as I believe give it a few more years, AOE will probably be over $10 but in the short term, it is very likely that the share price may drop to under $3 if the deal is off.
AOE Price at posting:
$4.64 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held