Bank of Valletta shares were the talk of the day during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange as the price shot up by almost two per cent on strong volume.
Initial activity was quite regular with a few hundred shares changing hands at yesterday's closing level of Lm5.07c. But 15 minutes into the session, demand for almost 9,000 shares hit the offer side, aggressively pushing the price up to the Lm5.13c level. By the end of the day a total of 22,123 shares had changed hands across 21 trades, forcing the price to close 10c higher at Lm5.17c.
Trading activity in HSBC Bank Malta picked up too, with more than 12,000 shares being exchanged across 16 trades, within a penny's range. The price was marked up slightly to close the day at Lm5.60c.
Maltacom shareholders had little to cheer about as the price declined for the second day running.
Sellers still seem to dominate the equity with buyers enjoying the luxury of selecting their own bid prices. During the session's activity, 5,830 shares were struck across seven deals. The price moved only in one direction, dropping 3c5 or 1.4 per cent of its value on the way down to the Lm1.38c5 level.
Elsewhere, two investors swapped 1,000 Malta International Airport shares across a single deal at the Lm1.33c level. This represents a discount of 1c9 to Monday's closing price.
Sharp rise in eBay
Wall Street stocks went through a mixed session on Monday, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 0.2 per cent to 10,623.15, while tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5 per cent to 2,195.38, boosted by a broker upgrade for electronic retailer eBay.
Oil prices rallied to fresh record nominal highs as the market reacted to news of the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd and concerns over refinery outages in the US continued. Benchmark Nymex WTI for September delivery hit a record $62.30 a barrel. However, prices eased back down to $61.10 a barrel yesterday as Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, sought to calm market fears over any change in oil production policy.
European shares made gains yesterday as firm crude prices supported the continent's oil producers and the German auto sector received a boost as the reporting season continued. The heavyweight company Royal Dutch Shell gained 1.7 per cent to €26.18. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 climbed 0.4 per cent to 1,184.34 by midday, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.5 per cent to 5,315.0, Germany's Xetra Dax gained 0.4 per cent to 4,912.68 and France's CAC-40 put on 0.4 per cent to 4,475.52.
In Asia, Japanese stocks fell slightly yesterday, as investors cashed in price rises in companies that have reported strong quarterly earnings. Domestic stocks were also hit by fears that Japan's upper house of Parliament could reject the government's postal privatison Bill on Friday. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised to call a general election if the Bill is defeated.