Financial News

Last-minute buying activity helped the MSE index close the session in positive territory, although dragged by declines in heavyweight HSBC. Volumes remained low and with no corporate actions or news issued, investors saw no particular urgency to trade equities.

Maltacom was the day's top gainer as the equity rallied 2.7 per cent to close the session at Lm1.94,9. The equity commenced trading in negative territory, although within 10 minutes from the opening, the price had climbed to the Lm1.90 level. There it stayed until the final few seconds, when a purchase order ensured the equity closed strongly higher.

HSBC Bank Malta had a relatively volatile session with the price loosely bouncing around a tight trade range. The day's activity consisted in 22,259 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm48,850, which were exchanged across 23 transactions. The equity finished the session 2c or 0.9 per cent lower at Lm2.18.

Bank of Valletta recouped its previous session's entire decline as merely 1,232 shares were purchased across two transactions. Lack of supply at lower prices left the buyers with no option but to increase their bids all the way up to the Lm4 level.

Two low-volume sell orders, executed within a short time frame of each other, brought a 3c or 1.5 per cent decrease to the price of GlobalCapital which closed at Lm2.03. Elsewhere, two investors swapped 500 shares of Malta International Airport at the Lm1.45 level, which represents a 2c or 1.4 per cent premium.

London hit by profit taking

US stocks ended higher in light trading on Monday as markets closed early ahead of yesterday's Fourth of July holiday. At the close, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.8 per cent respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.7 per cent.

Europe's bourses reversed yesterday as auto stocks weakened, weighed down by the stronger euro against the dollar, lower US car sales and broker downgrades. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.2 per cent with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt off 0.1 per cent. The CAC-40 in Paris down 0.4 per cent.

The London market traded lower pausing for breath after a four-day winning streak. The FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent, as investors decided to bank some profits after a four-day run which has seen the leading index gain three-and-a-half per cent. The FTSE 250 eased 0.13 per cent.

The Japanese stock market was boosted by a strong performance among exporters, which were propelled higher by overnight strength on Wall Street and easing fears of a further increase in US interest rates.

The Nikkei 225 gained 0.4 per cent. The broader Topix rose above 1,600 for the first time in almost a month, closing up 0.6 per cent.

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