Bank trades at historical highs

The Malta Stock Exchange sprung back to life during yesterday's trading session as activity flourished across nine of the listed companies. Volumes swelled as investors negotiated banking equities in particular, which all traded at their respective historical highs.

Bank of Valletta rallied further into positive territory and touched a fresh record high of Lm7.12. A grand total of 38,330 shares were exchanged across 41 transactions with the equity closing the session 5c4 or 0.76 per cent higher at Lm7.11,4.

Lombard Bank too remained in hot demand as 2,225 shares were snatched without hesitation across three transactions, at a 5c premium to Friday's closing level. This saw the price close a fresh high of Lm7.25.

Trading in HSBC Bank Malta consisted of 3,405 shares which were exchanged across 11 trades. The price fluctuated slightly as initial supply gave way to demand which helped the price close higher by the slimmest of margins and regain its all time high of Lm7.15.

Investors sold Maltacom shares to channel the funds elsewhere, following last week's newspaper report that the government should be concluding its strategic sale of shares towards June 2006. During the session a total of 46,600 shares were exchanged, pushing the price down by 1c9 to close at the Lm1.72,1 level.

A single transaction in San Tumas Shareholdings floored the price by 6.9 per cent to finish the session at Lm0.93,1.

Businesses count cost of depot explosion

Businesses near the Buncefield fuel depot in Hertfordshire were counting the cost of the massive explosion on Sunday, with fashion retailer ASOS suspending trading of its shares and three companies reporting damage to their offices. The fuel depot is adjacent to a business park and distribution centre. While the fire disturbed business for a number of companies during the busy Christmas period, most said that they had been insured against losses to stock or disruptions to sales.

Wall Street stocks looked set to open broadly higher yesterday as a raft of merger and acquisition activity boosted investor sentiment ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting today. Half an hour before the bell, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were trading 41 points higher while contracts on the broader S&P 500 were 5.44 points above fair value.

ABN Amro sold its 40.2 per cent stake in Kereskedelmi és Hitelbank for €510 million, ceding full control of Hungary's second largest bank to KBC of Belgium. The Dutch bank said its decision to sell was "in line with its strategy to divest non-core assets and its commitment to strong internal capital management".

Shares in Waterford Wedgwood, the Irish crystal maker and tableware group, dropped more than 12 per cent in early trade when it reported a widening of interim operating losses and said current trading remained "challenging".

Japanese stocks advanced in morning trade, pushed up by rises in domestic stocks in particular. The Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 2.2 per cent while the Topix index rose 1.7 per cent.