Index flat in lackluster session

Investors continued to book profits in the major banking equities yesterday, however last-minute buying activity and demand for other sector securities helped the MSE index close the day unchanged at 6,552 points.

Bank of Valletta immediately opened weaker at the Lm4.95 level and, although investors supplied shares down to the Lm4.86 level, the equity managed to pull back towards the end, to close the session at Lm4.90.

HSBC Bank Malta declined 5c during the session, although this level was deemed as a good entry point and fresh buy orders ensured the price closed unchanged at Lm11.60.

A single purchase order for 1,425 FIMBank shares helped the price notch higher to close at $2.08.

Activity picked up nicely in Maltacom shares where the bulk of the day's trades were executed soon after the opening bell rung out. Further buy orders were executed at the Lm2.22 level.

Strong demand returned for International Hotel Investments as a grand total of 40,521 shares were exchanged across five transactions helping the price rally 6.2 per cent to close the week at the €0.85 level.

Middlesea Insurance moved higher by 5c or 0.9 per cent as 3,000 shares were quickly exchanged at the Lm5.25 level.

Investors bought shares of Global Financial Services Group ahead of the company's full-year results which were due to be reported after the session's close. The day's activity consisted in 1,503 shares which helped the price rise to a multi-year high of Lm1.99.

Elsewhere in the market, 7,900 shares of Plaza Centres dropped the closing price by the slimmest of margins to Lm0.71,9.

Weak US stocks drag down Tokyo

Overnight weakness in US stocks limited gains in the Japanese market yesterday morning. By midday the Nikkei 225 was up less than 0.1 per cent. The Topix rose 0.1 per cent.

Real estate stocks initially raced ahead after Thursday's government land price survey showed the first price rise for Tokyo's 23 wards in 15 years, as well as isolated price strength in big regional cities such as Nagoya and Sapporo. But by the close of the morning the market had calmed and the gains were fairly limited.

Google looked set to lead technology stocks higher yesterday after Standard & Poor's said on late Thursday that it would add the internet search group to its S&P 500 index.

European stock markets moved higher yesterday despite losses on Wall Street, as support came from a fresh wave of merger and acquisition activity.

By mid-morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.4 per cent, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax gained 0.2 per cent. In Paris, the CAC 40 was 0.4 per cent higher and London's FTSE 100 climbed 0.6 per cent.

The FTSE 100 hit a fresh five-year high yesterday. Tesco and other supermarkets were leading gainer on reports that they could look to place their property portfolios into tax-efficient investment vehicles. Tesco gained 3.4 per cent to 346p on hopes that the supermarket chain could look to place its £12 billion property portfolio into a real estate investment trust.

The FTSE 100 was up 30.9 points or 0.5 per cent by mid-day and the FTSE 250 gained 29.5 points or 0.3 per cent.

The financial news was compiled by Valletta Fund Management (tel. 8007 2344) and BOV Stockbrokers Ltd (2122 1732).