Haha, no dusters (yet/lately!). This year is going pretty well so far :) My existing portfolio doesn't influence my stance on companies I've never owned, that would be silly ;)
As you say, these companies have nothing to lose (or loose), but by 'taking an interest' they get free PR as supposedly green organisations. It's economically meaningless.
And again, you can't say something is good just because it's not as bad as something else. A sell would be an indication of probable desperation or disaster. A trivial buy is an obvious publicity stunt posing as good news, but it certainly is not good news. If he actually wanted to invest he'd have bought more. It's not necessarily bad at all, but it's no more positive than a commercial, and slightly less good because it's a clearly dishonest one (though subtle and indirect, and hey,the same can be said of most advertising/PR).
Interesting to see the price drop today; I'd have thought the ploy might work. Concerning to see it on such low volume; it means buyers are scarce and sentiment is poor, indicating high vulnerability to a return to recent or new lows without some good news soon. It also indicates that the market is growing weary of hollow 'good' news.
AEB Price at posting:
27.5¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held