Financial news
MSE index moves sideways
Yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange saw investors continuing where they left off before the weekend break with prices moving sideways while volumes picked up slightly.
HSBC Bank Malta was the day's top performer among the two equities which registered gains. In fact, the equity closed the day at Lm2.36 which represents a 1c or 0.4 per cent gain from Friday's closing level. The equity immediately commenced trading higher and climbed to Lm2.37 before retreating slightly. At the end of the session, 427 shares remained outstanding on the offer side at Lm2.36 while best demand stood for 1,000 shares at Lm2.35,6.
Low volume selling activity in Bank of Valletta induced the price to close in negative territory. The day's activity consisted in 6,047 shares which were exchanged across 11 transactions. Most of the trading was driven by the offer side and as a result the price declined 2c or 0.5 per cent to close at Lm4.10.
Middlesea Insurance gained 2c or 0.4 per cent to close at Lm5.30, as a total of 1,000 shares were purchased across two transactions, while Maltacom drifted lower by 0c6 or 0.3 per cent to Lm2.01c4 on merely 1,847 shares which were struck across five transactions.
Both Malta International Airport and International Hotel Investments closed the day lower at Lm1.49c and €0.94 respectively. Elsewhere, FIMBank traded in large chunks and maintained its previous closing level of $1.93, although outstanding supply was offered at a lower price.
Wall Street seen higher as market awaits data
European equity markets extended their early losses by lunchtime yesterday amid weakness in the technology, insurance and chemicals sectors. Ahead of a raft of inflation data from both sides of the Atlantic this week, concerns about the impact of rising interest on economic activity continued to unsettle investors. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.6 per cent while the German Xetra Dax lost 0.9 per cent and the French CAC 40 declined 0.7 per cent.
London equities lost ground as falling copper prices hit the mining sector and telecoms group Vodafone came under pressure. The FTSE 100 fell 0.4 per cent while the FTSE 250 lost 0.3 per cent.
Both domestic and export-focused sectors in Japan made modest gains. The Topix was up 0.8 per cent and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 per cent.
US markets looked set to open higher yesterday, following a heavy sell-off last week, and ahead of the release of important data today and tomorrow. An hour before the opening, S&P 500 futures were up 2.59 points above fair value, while Nasdaq Composite futures were up 1.52 points above fair value.
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