Equities gave back some of their previous session glow during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange, as a few investors sought to book profits and cash in their gains.
HSBC Bank Malta was the day's top loser, dropping 9c or 1.4 per cent to close the day at Lm6.25. Activity was for 10,030 shares which were exchanged across 24 trades.
Three consecutive sessions of sizzling gains in Bank of Valletta came to an end on low volume profit-taking. During the session, BOV's price declined 3c5 or 0.6 per cent to close at Lm5.95.
Two investors swapped 2,000 shares of FIMBank among them at the $1.80c level while 1,536 shares of Lombard Bank were purchased across four transactions without affecting their previous closing level of Lm7.00c1.
All 27 transactions executed in Maltacom shares were affected at a 0c9 premium to the previous session's close, at the Lm1.60c level. A grand total of 19,942 shares were exchanged throughout the session for a consideration amount of Lm31,907.
Global Financial Services Group shares declined 0c5 to Lm1.29 as 3,750 shares were purchased across five transactions at offer prices which were lower than the previous closing level. Similarly, Simonds Farsons Cisk declined to the Lm0.79c9 level on purchases for a total of 2,000 shares.
Elsewhere in the market, activity in International Hotel Investments, Malta International Airport and Middlesea Insurance did not affect their previous closing levels of €0.90, Lm1.40 and Lm3.37c respectively.
Tokyo stocks end six-day losing streak
European stock markets bounced sharply yesterday, rallying from the previous session's hefty sell off. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.1 per cent to 1,185.55, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 1.3 per cent to 4,908.99. In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.3 per cent to 4,430.61.
In the US overnight, stocks recovered from early losses thanks to strong earnings from the likes of JPMorgan and Altria. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3 per cent to 10414.13, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.7 per cent to 2,091.24.
London equity markets rebounded strongly yesterday after Wednesday's sell-off, helped by an approach for mid-cap oil explorer Paladin Resources. Following a 1.8 per cent fall on Wednesday, the main index's worst single-day performance for 17 months, the blue chip FTSE 100 was trading 0.9 per cent higher at 5209.1 in afternoon trade.
The FTSE 250 rose 99.9 points or 1.4 per cent to 7,521.4. The second-tier market index had lost 2.4 per cent on Wednesday.
Japan bulls breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as Tokyo stocks ended their six-day losing streak on gains in domestically-focused stocks. The Nikkei 225 finished trading up 0.5 per cent at 13,190.46 while the Topix index rose 0.3 per cent to 1,383.95.