Financial News
Banks bounce back
Investors chose to forget last week's negativity and returned chasing equity prices during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange.
HSBC Bank Malta rallied 64c or 6.4 per cent as 29,732 shares were purchased across 98 transactions.
Similarly, Bank of Valletta closed the session at its highest permissible level for the day. During the session a total of 41,840 shares were exchanged across 54 trades pushing the price 18c or 4.1 per cent higher to end at Lm4.51,9.
A substantial amount of FIMBank shares were exchanged across 24 transactions. The price rallied initially but still closed unchanged on the day at $2.35.
Just 275 shares of Lombard Bank were exchanged during the session without altering its previous closing price of Lm10.50. The bank reported, shortly before the market closed, a 44.2 per cent increase in pre-tax profit of Lm3.67 million for the year ended December 31, 2005. The board of directors is proposing a final gross dividend of 20c per share to all shareholders registered on the close of the March 13. Global Financial Services Group recouped more than its entire previous session's decline, jumping seven per cent to close at Lm1.39,2, while International Hotel Investments gained 5.5 per cent to climb back up to €0.95.
Maltacom returned back in favour and reclaimed the psychologically important Lm2 level. Activity consisted of 17,379 shares and was spread across 31 trades.
Malta International Airport was the day's only loser, as the equity declined 3c or 1.9 per cent to close the session at Lm1.57.
FTSE undermined despite strong RBS results
London equities moved lower yesterday as weakness in the mining and telecoms sectors took the shine off strong full-year results from Royal Bank of Scotland. The UK bank impressed investors with a 16 per cent rise in full-year profits and plans to return up to £1 billion to shareholders via a share buy-back programme. Shares in RBS rose four per cent to £19.33.
The news helped move the banking sector higher with HBOS trading up 2.4 per cent to £10.81 and Northern Rock up 0.7 per cent at £11.46.
Wall Street looked set to continue its volatile run yesterday as data showed that US economic growth advanced at its slowest rate in three years as consumer spending slowed.
Revised fourth-quarter gross domestic product data showed a 1.6 per cent annual increase, up from the 1.1 per cent initial estimate, but markedly slower than the 4.1 per cent growth seen in the third quarter.
Europe's bourses fell, after extending four-and-a-half-year highs in the previous session, with weakness in oil and utility stocks weighing. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.8 per cent by mid afternoon with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt down one per cent, the CAC-40 in Paris off 0.7 per cent and the FTSE 100 in London down 0.8 per cent.
The Japanese stock market eked out another increase yesterday, with rises in many domestic sectors counterbalancing falls among commodity companies. The Nikkei 225 managed its fourth straight rise, though there was little sense of triumph, with an increase of only 0.1 per cent to 16,205.43. The Topix was up 0.2 per cent to 1,660.42.