in the Bermuda-registered ocean shipping company.

News of the sale of 12.05 percent of BT's shares came days after the company announced it had trimmed its third quarter loss to $600,000.

According to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Centennial Associates L.P. and its affiliates sold 990,200 common shares at $3.48 each on November 2.

Centennial and its affiliates no longer hold any stock in BT, which owns and operates a fleet of six tankers.

BT Shipping American Depositary Receipts traded yesterday at 2 7/8. The company has 8.21 million shares outstanding.

BT reported that it suffered a third quarter loss of $600,000, compared with a $1.4-million loss before an exceptional charge, during the same period last year.

Chairman and chief executive Mr. S.E.N. Pollock said earnings were adversely affected by weak US demand for imported residual fuel oil from the Caribbean trading area.

He said unseasonably low inventory levels, a decline in US residual fuel oil consumption as utilities increased the use of lower cost natural gas and hurricane-induced precautionary shutdown periods in Caribbean refineries had produced adverse market conditions in August and September.