Financial News

Equities declined during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange as investors sold their shares to collect profits following the weekend break.

FIMBank was the day's biggest loser as the equity lost almost six per cent to close at the $2.056 level.

Lombard Bank too declined, although a final buy order trimmed the losses to just 15c or 1.3 per cent. Initially, the equity touched an all-time high of Lm11.80, but when sellers appeared, the price quickly retreated down to Lm11.50. However, the final trade of the day helped the price settle at Lm11.60.

On the contrary Bank of Valletta gained 2c9 or 0.65 per cent to Lm4.48,9 as a few shares less than 62,000 where exchanged across 73 transactions.

Middlesea Insurance plummeted 5.6 per cent as investors deemed that the price had risen too quickly and sold their shares down to the Lm5 level.

Maltacom started trading 2.7 per cent higher as a number of investors reacted enthusiastically to weekend press reports regarding the privatisation process. However, other investors deemed the rise as a good opportunity to book profits and the equity quickly sold off down to the Lm2.10 level.

A single transaction for 1,000 shares saw the price of Global Financial Services Group increase by 0.13 per cent to Lm1.50, while a similarly-sized transaction in Simonds Farsons Cisk floored the share price by 4.6 per cent to Lm0.83.

The euro-denominated shares of International Hotel Investments dropped 5.5 per cent as bids retreated to the €0.85 level.

India's Reliance Communications makes strong debut

Reliance Communications Ventures Ltd, the holding group for India's second-largest mobile phone carrier, made a solid debut on the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday as investors placed their bets on the company's potential as well as the world's fastest growing wireless market.

Wall Street looked poised for a strong opening yesterday, boosted by a fresh wave of merger and acquisition activity - including AT&T's long-awaited acquisition of BellSouth. With less than an hour to go before the market opened, US stock futures were broadly higher. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 13 points, while contracts on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 traded 0.83 of a point and 4.78 points above fair value, suggesting a higher opening.

Over the weekend AT&T announced plans to acquire smaller rival BellSouth for $67 billion to become the largest telecommunication company in the world with a market capitalisation of as much as $170 billion. Shares in BellSouth surged 12.1 per cent to $35.26 while AT&T eased one per cent to $27.70.

Bayer became the first high profile German company to wade into the debate on European energy strategy as it called on the German government to act "quickly and systematically to sustainably improve the competitive position of the country's industry".

Engineering group IMI plans to continue growth in 2006 through acquisitions and transferring manufacturing to low-cost facilities in Mexico, the Czech Republic and China. Yesterday, alongside its preliminary results for the year, it announced the £113 million acquisition of Truflo, a maker of valves with applications in the energy sector.