Financial News

Equities closed the first session of the week in negative territory as investors failed to capitalise on Friday's gains and booked profits instead.

HSBC Bank Malta remained the most sought after equity, as investors gear up for Thursday's interim results. Nevertheless the equity closed the session unchanged at Lm2.35 for the sixth consecutive session as a constant flow of supply quenched all the day's demand.

Bank of Valletta immediately gave up its previous session's entire gain, as the first trade of the day was struck at the Lm4 level. Subsequent deals were all executed at this level and, by the end of the session, a total of 3,255 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm13,020, were exchanged across eight transactions.

On the contrary, Lombard Bank continued to move north as 5,850 shares were purchased towards the very end of the session, thereby pushing the price higher by a penny to Lm5.65.

GlobalCapital declined 0.5 per cent as 239 shares were swapped across two transactions at the Lm2.09 level, while a similar monetary decline of 1c was suffered by Simonds Farsons Cisk also over low volume. In fact barely 750 shares were exchanged across three transactions squeezing the price down to 77c, its lowest level of the month.

Demand for euro denominated shares of International Hotel Investments remained active, with 4,800 shares changing hands across four deals pushing the price 0.5 per cent higher to €0.91.

Elsewhere in the market, strong demand for Malta International Airport saw 11,810 shares being cleared off the board without affecting its previous closing level of Lm1.46.

London stocks lifted by Vodafone update

European equity markets were higher yesterday as merger and acquisition activity and speculation offset the effects of falling commodity prices on oil producers and miners. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.8 per cent, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 0.8 per cent. In Paris, the CAC 40 was 0.6 per cent higher.

London's leading equities got off to a strong start to the week after a trading update from Vodafone. By late morning, the FTSE 100 had jumped one per cent, reversing Friday's sharp loss. The FTSE 250 index was up 0.8 per cent. Vodafone moved to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard after its second-quarter trading update impressed the market ahead of today's annual meeting.

Tokyo shares fell led by steel producers, but losses were limited by a rally in the paper and pulp sector. The Nikkei 225 closed down 0.2 per cent. The broader Topix lost 0.1 per cent.

US stock market futures pointed to a higher opening for stocks as deals news and better-than-expected earnings reports buoyed investor confidence ahead of another busy week in the earnings season. An hour before the bell, S&P 500 futures were 3.22 points above fair value, while Nasdaq Composite futures were 5.04 points above fair value.

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