Financial News

Lombard Bank led equities higher during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange, as investors returned to the market, following the weekend break, with a fresh appetite for shares.

Lombard Bank shares were the day's top gainers and managed to close at a new all-time high. A total of 1,714 shares were purchased in rapid succession across five trades, halfway through the session. This activity forced the price to close at 5c or 0.9 per cent higher at Lm5.65c.

Trading in Bank of Valletta consisted of 5,529 shares being exchanged across 15 trades. Initially, the price wobbled slightly between Lm5.02c and Lm5.03c but, as time wore on, all the supply up to the Lm5.05c level was cleared.

Maltacom shares closed the day with modest gains, ascending 0c2 to finish the session at Lm1.35c2, while trading in HSBC Bank Malta and Simonds Farsons Cisk, although fairly voluminous, did not affect their previous closing levels of Lm5.24c and Lm0.85c respectively.

In the alternative companies list, Datatrak Holdings were the day's only losers, declining 1c1 or 5.7 per cent as 2,000 shares were swapped among two investors at the Lm0.18c level.

The fixed interest sector of the market was buzzing with activity with yields moving slightly higher as investors sold out to channel funds into the new government issues which are due out on Thursday.

London up as C&W takes a look at Energis

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 0.1 per cent higher on the session at 10.640.8 and the Nasdaq Composite finished 0.2 per cent stronger at 2,156.8.

London equities moved higher yesterday morning amid talk of a merger involving telecoms group Cable & Wireless. The FTSE 100 gained 15 points, 0.3 per cent, to 5,245.5 in late morning trade while the mid-cap FTSE 250 firmed 13.3 points, 0.2 per cent, to 7,484.1.

The main European stock indices endured a volatile ride as investors looked to Greece and the likelihood of further share placements as gaming group Opap surged after its latest offering. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.1 per cent to 1,162.32, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 0.1 per cent to 4,718.83. In Paris, the CAC-40 was down 0.1 per cent at 4,371.6. LG Electronics Inc., the world's fourth-largest mobile phone maker, reported a larger-than-expected 69.5 per cent fall in quarterly profits yesterday, hit by a squeeze in handset margins and lower flat-screen prices. The outlook for the South Korean firm, also the world's top maker of airconditioners, is expected to improve as flat-screen prices stabilise, but it looks set to miss its 2005 mobile sales' target as weak sales at home and abroad bite. Raffles Holdings, the Singapore state-controlled hotel group, said it would sell the landmark Raffles Hotel and 40 other hotels it owns around the world for S$1.72 billion (US$1 billion) to Colony Capital, a US-based investment fund.