Financial News

Investors continued to exchange equities of the two larger banks yesterday, with the MSE Index dipping slightly due to declines in smaller capitalised equities. Activity in the bond market picked up slightly, although the majority of yields remained unchanged.

Activity in Simonds Farsons Cisk consisted of 4,500 shares which were exchanged across two transactions. Both deals were executed at the 78c level which represents a 2c or 2.5 per cent decline from its previous closing price. At the end of the session, 100 shares were best bid at 76c while 2,500 shares were offered at 80c.

Two investors swapped 1,241 shares of International Hotel Investments at the €0.90,5 level. This left a further unsatisfied amount of 1,759 shares on the bid side. The spread is narrow indeed with 3,480 shares on offer at just €0.91.

HSBC Bank Malta remained the most actively traded and liquid equity on the exchange with 19,585 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm46,028, being dealt across 22 transactions. Alas, for the fourth consecutive session, there was no movement in the closing price which remained stagnant at the Lm2.35 level.

A sudden decline in Bank of Valletta's price, down to the Lm3.96 level, halfway through the session, was quickly reversed, with demand coming in to support the Lm4. By the end of the session 10,568 shares had changed hands across 15 transactions.

Bourses gain on Fed chairman's remarks

Yesterday Europe's bourses extended the gains seen in the previous session after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke eased worries over the risk of excessive monetary tightening by saying the central bank expected US inflation to fall. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.5 per cent with the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt up 0.4 per cent and the CAC-40 in Paris 0.7 per cent higher.

Capita Group spearheaded a buoyant London market after the support services company reported strong interim numbers. By midday, the FTSE 100 index was up 0.4 per cent while the FTSE 250 was 0.4 per cent higher.

Tokyo stock markets rose strongly as worries over the outlook of economic growth in the US abated after the US Federal Reserve indicated inflation would retreat form recent highs. The Nikkei 225 rose by 3.1 per cent. The broader Topix rose 3.6 per cent.

Wall Street was set to open higher, following through on Wednesday's advances which gave the Dow Jones Industrial Average its second best day since April 2003. An hour before the markets were due to open, S&P 500 futures were 0.54 points above fair value, while Nasdaq Composite futures were 0.25 points above fair value.

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