Peter Johnson, non-executive chairman of Marshall Motor Holdings, has invested a further £37,500 in shares in the publicly listed dealer group.

His purchase of 25,000 shares at 150p per share yesterday takes his total shareholding to 175,328 or 0.23% of the dealer group’s issued share capital.

Alan Ferguson, a non-executive director of Marshall and a former Inchcape finance director, made an identical purchase on the same day, taking his total shareholding in Marshall to 58,557, 0.08% of the issued share capital.

The purchases took place as Marshall issued a statement aimed at reassuring the market, following a sudden drop in its share price.

Also on the same day, Inchcape and Pendragon both bought back shares for cancellation.