David Jones’ directors are under scrutiny by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for potential insider trading.

The watchdog is reviewing emails between the retailer’s chairman, Peter Mason, and two non-executive directors given approval to buy shares in the company.

The share purchase was approved just before the department store released its first sales growth in nine months, says the Australian Financial Review.

ASIC is seeking to determine what non-executive directors, Steve Vamos and Leigh Clapham, knew about upcoming sales results when their purchases were made.

“We are aware that ASIC is looking into the matter,” said Mason to the AFR.

“We approached ASIC ourselves informally when this matter became a subject of press comment.”