Financial News

Equities traded lower during yesterday's session at the Malta Stock Exchange. The session was particularly dull and characterised by low volume.

Malta International Airport shares suffered the brunt of low-volume sellers with just 1,400 shares being exchanged across four transactions. This brought about a 3c or 2.2 per cent decline in the share price which closed at Lm1.32.

Trading in Bank of Valletta was particularly volatile, especially considering that just 3,072 shares were exchanged across eight trades. Initial trading saw the price tumbling by six cents or 1.2 per cent to the Lm4.80 level. But towards the end of the session, a relatively large purchase order forced the price to climb a little to close at Lm4.84. Nevertheless, this closing price represents a 2c or 0.4 per cent decline from Friday's closing level.

Meanwhile, 500 shares of HSBC Bank Malta were transacted in rapid succession across three transactions without affecting its previous level of Lm4.85. Half-yearly results for Malta's largest listed company are expected towards the end of July.

In the fixed interest sector of the market, activity was spread across three corporate bonds and six government issues. The three tranches of the five per cent MGS 2021 ended the day on different notes.

Wall Street seen starting modestly higher

Wall Street looked headed for a mildly positive open yesterday, but in the absence of major economic or corporate news, market participants were left pondering the continued rally in oil and treasuries. In pre-market trading, about two hours before the opening bells, S&P 500 futures were off 0.3 point to 1,198.20, 1.56 points above fair value - indicating a positive opening. The Nasdaq futures were up one point to 1,551.50, 5.34 points above fair value. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down six points to 10,475.

Europe's bourses edged higher in cautious trade as concerns over weak economic growth in the US were stoked by weak employment data last week and crude prices breached a six-week peak above $55 a barrel. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 added 0.04 per cent to 1,118.23 with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt up 0.1 per cent to 4,513.57 and the CAC-40 in Paris down 0.1 at 4,159.76.

London's main equity market hovered above the 5,000 mark yesterday up 0.1 per cent to 5,004. Ahead of this week's meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, analysts at Merrill Lynch said they expected interest rates to remain on hold into 2006.

Japanese stocks fell yesterday, depressed by a combination of weak share prices and economic data from the US, a strengthening of the yen against the dollar, and profit taking after a strong recent run. The tech-heavy Nikkei 225 fell by 0.3 per cent to 11,270.62, while the broader-based Topix declined by 0.2 per cent to 1,145.37.