Busy session on MSE

Yesterday was another busy session on the Malta Stock Exchange as investors continued to trade heavily in Bank of Valletta shares. The Malta Stock Exchange Index rallied further closing at a new record high for the fifth consecutive session.

BOV shares gained a further 10c7, to close the day at Lm4.10. Initial activity commenced at the Lm4.09 and climbed to a maximum of Lm4.12 in the first few minutes. However, once supply started to crop up the share price settled at the Lm4.10 where most of the day's activity was effected.

HSBC Bank Malta also traded higher, with the share price advancing by a further 2c to close the session at its all-time high of Lm8.35. In the rest of the banking sector shares of FIMBank and Lombard Bank both ended in negative territory, down by US$0.02 and Lm0.01, respectively. In the meantime shares of Middlesea Insurance dipped by 20c or 4.8 per cent to Lm4, as investors took some profits out of the recent rally.

The day's highest gains were confined to International Hotel Investments which recovered €0.05 to trade back at €0.85.

Elsewhere in the market shares of Global Financial Services Group and Malta International Airport both ended in the red, down by 3.1 per cent to Lm1.25c and 0.7 per cent to Lm1.53c, respectively.

Kosdaq suspended after shares drop more than 10 per cent

Trading in South Korea's junior Kosdaq market was suspended for 20 minutes yesterday after over-night falls in US stocks and soaring oil prices prompted heavy selling by local investors, sending the Kosdaq index down 10 per cent. It was the first time circuit breakers had been used on the tech-heavy Kosdaq market since the system was introduced in October 2001. Circuit breakers stop trading automatically when a drop of more than 10 per cent in the market index lasts for one minute.

Nike confirmed that William Perez had resigned as chief executive officer of the world's largest sporting goods manufacturer and said that he would be replaced by Mark Parker, the Nike brand co-chairman. The sports shoe and clothing company said that the relationship had ended mutually, citing differences of opinion regarding leadership between Mr Perez and Philip Knight, the founder and chairman of Nike.

European stocks clawed back a little of their losses as the price of a barrel of crude oil eased having breached $69 a barrel. Wall Street's worst one day fall in almost three years weighed. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.8 per cent to 1,273.51 with Frankfurt's the Xetra Dax off 0.6 per cent to 5,316.88, the CAC-40 in Paris 0.9 per cent down at 4,730.53 and the FTSE 100 in London 0.7 per cent off at 5,631.1.

London markets rebounded from the steep early losses in morning trade as investors used the initial falls as an opportunity to buy. The shadow of the worst single-day performance since March 2003 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average loomed as traders headed into work.

The financial news was compiled by Valletta Fund Management (tel. 8007 2344) and BOV Stockbrokers Ltd (2275 1732).