Activity remained soft although spread across a healthy number of equities during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, the MSE index closed in positive territory, albeit by just 0.2 per cent.
HSBC Bank Malta was the day's most actively traded equity with 28,749 shares being exchanged across 28 trades. The equity gained 3c5 or 1.5 per cent and climbed steadily throughout the session, closing in the end at Lm2.40.
On the contrary, Bank of Valletta declined by 5c or 1.2 per cent to terminate the session at Lm4.15.
Selling activity in Lombard Bank saw the price close lower by the slimmest of margins as 1,000 shares were exchanged down to Lm4.75.
Global Financial Services Group recouped its previous session's entire decline on fresh demand. Investors reacted positively to news that the company's bond offering was oversubscribed within two hours of opening and purchased up to 5,100 shares, pushing the price higher by 5c or 2.5 per cent to Lm2.05.
Conversely, Maltacom lost its previous day's increase as investors sold shares to cash in profits. The day's activity amounted to 12,920 shares which were exchanged across 19 trades. Initially the equity commenced trading higher at Lm1.97 but subsided during the session to close almost a percentage point lower at Lm1.94.
Low volume trading in Middlesea Insurance brought a 5c or 0.95 per cent decline to the price which closed the day at Lm5.19,9. Elsewhere, two investors swapped 800 shares of Simonds Farson Cisk at Lm0.76,5, which represents a 0.6 per cent premium to Thursday's closing level.
Wall Street set higher at the end of the week
Europe's bourses edged higher yesterday confounding expectations they would extend their sharp slide into a third day after Wall Street retreated further on inflation and interest rate worries. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was fractionally higher with the Xetra Dax up 0.3 per cent. The CAC-40 in Paris was up 0.7 per cent. The London market was unable to find a settled level as the FTSE 100 continued its recent volatility.
Wall Street was set to open higher following Thursday's late-day slump, fuelling hopes that the Nasdaq at least would be able to reverse its losing streak. An hour before the bell, S&P 500 futures were 4.1 points above fair value, while Nasdaq Composite futures were 9.5 points above fair value.
News of faster-than-expected growth in the Japanese economy ultimately proved more powerful than fears about the US economy, pushing Japanese stock indices a touch higher. The Nikkei 225 closed 0.4 per cent higher, reversing morning gains. The Topix rose 0.4 per cent.
Both indices benefited from morning news that the Japanese economy had grown faster than expected in the first quarter. Securities houses staged the biggest comeback of the day, clawing back morning losses to end two per cent higher.