Financial News
Government bonds in focus
Local equities, although uncharacteristically active considering the time of the year, still traded in the shadow of the fixed interest market, where the newly issued tranches of the 5.70 per cent MGS 2012 and the 5.00 per cent MGS 2021 commenced trading yesterday, attracting particularly high volumes.
Maltacom shares gained a penny as 6,467 shares changed hands across six transactions, at the Lm1.38 level. Trades were struck in the opening minutes of the session before activity picked up again towards the end of the session.
HSBC Bank Malta declined 0.9 per cent as sellers hit the bid side with a total of 5,050 shares. This forced a five cents decline on the price which closed the day at Lm5.55c. At the end of the session a massive bid-offer spread had developed, with buy orders at Lm5.42 for 2,000 shares, while best supply came in for 803 shares at Lm5.59.
Bank of Valletta traded in high volumes with 21,581 shares being struck across 25 deals. An initial supply surplus saw the price decline down to the Lm5.03,5 level. But this level was only maintained temporarily as fresh demand came in from nowhere and the price slowly crawled back to close the day unchanged at Lm5.05.
Elsewhere activity in Malta International Airport and FIMBank shares did not affect their previous closing prices of Lm1.33 and $1.24 respectively.
London higher as financials rally
European bourses were higher yesterday as technology stocks were boosted by rumours that Cisco Systems of the US was considering a bid for Nokia, the Finnish mobile handset maker, to win its wireless infrastructure.
By mid-morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.8 per cent to 1,182.82, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 0.7 per cent to 4,858.96. In Paris, the CAC-40 was 0.8 per cent higher at 4,456.58.
On Wall Street, stocks ended Friday's session weaker after employment data suggested labour market growth was picking up in the US, fuelling speculation that the Federal Reserve would continue to steadily increase interest rates.
London equity markets shrugged off the weak close in New York on Friday and moved higher by the end of the morning session, helped by strength in the banking sector after upbeat results from Standard Chartered. The FTSE 100 rose 0.6 per cent at 5,348.8 while the mid-cap FTSE 250 added 0.2 per cent at 7,698.0.
Japanese stocks staged a quick recovery yesterday in the wake of the government's defeat in Parliament over its planned postal privatisation. The Nikkei 225 average ended 0.1 per cent higher at 11,778.98, despite finishing morning trading one per cent down at 11,649.07. The broader Topix finished up 0.2 per cent on the day at 1,191.90, after closing the morning 0.9 per cent down at 1,178.15. Most analysts had predicted that equities would only temporarily be hit by the prospect of a political crisis, but few predicted that the fall would be so short-lived.