Financial News

The thirst for local equities remained strong during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange as herd instinct saw investors snap up equities at whatever cost. On the other side, sellers craftily placed offers at higher prices and as a result the MSE Index gained 1.5 per cent to close at a record 5,638 points.

Bank of Valletta was once again the day's top performer as well as the most actively traded equity. In fact a total of 48,557 shares were exchanged across 67 transactions with the price gaining 15c or 3.6 per cent, to a historical high of Lm4.30.

Buying activity in HSBC Bank Malta shares swelled during the session with investors purchasing shares ahead of the company's full year results which are due to be reported on February 16.

The day's activity consisted in 26,157 shares which were exchanged across 30 transactions pushing the price 10c higher to close at Lm9.05.

Middlesea Insurance shares gained a further 10c to climb to the Lm4.40 level, its highest level since September 2000.

The day's most liquid equity was Maltacom where a grand total of 48,583 shares were exchanged across 27 trades with the Lm2.20 level still providing quite a hefty resistance. Investors nibbled at the big chunks of shares on offer, although fresh orders kept reinforcing the supply side.

Elsewhere two investors swapped 500 shares of Malta International Airports at a penny premium to Wednesday's closing level.

BG leads FTSE higher

London equity markets traded sharply higher yesterday following a flurry of corporate news which saw BG Group leading FTSE 100 gainers as its fourth-quarter results beat expectations.

Shares in the oil and gas company rose 9.2 per cent to 674p after it reported an expectation-beating 97 per cent jump in fourth-quarter profit to £858 million and full year dividend up 57 per cent to 6p per share. BG said production volumes rose 21 per cent over the quarter and 10 per cent for the full year.

The group also said it expects exploration and production volume growth of five to seven per cent per annum between 2006 and 2009 and six to 10 per cent growth per annum between 2005 and 2012.

Overnight on Wednesday in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up one per cent, to 10,858.62, while the S&P 500 added 0.9 per cent to 1,265.65. The Nasdaq Composite rose one per cent to 2,266.98.

Taking encouragement from a recovery in US and Asian equity markets overnight, European equity markets moved higher by lunchtime on an extremely busy day for corporate results. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.8 per cent to 1,327.00 while the German Dax gained one per cent at 5,724.5 and the French CAC 40 added 0.9 per cent at 4,938.2.

Japanese shares closed up yesterday, boosted primarily by gains in the technology sector which saw the Nikkei clawing back some losses after it experienced a steep fall the previous day.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 average closed up one per cent to 16,439.67, while the broader Topix index was 0.7 per cent higher at 1,682.26.