Financial News

Local equities closed the mid-week session at the Malta Stock Exchange on a positive note thanks to a late surge in prices, which saw investors move their bids higher to snap up shares.

HSBC Bank Malta regained the title of the most active and liquid equity on the big board as 13,888 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm32,055, were exchanged across 20 trades. Following its previous session's decline, investors seemed cautious in the purchase as they await the group's interim results which are due to be announced today.

Nevertheless, by the end of the session, the equity closed 1c5 or 0.6 per cent higher at Lm2.31,5.

Investors left it till late to commence trading in Maltacom.

In fact, two buy orders totalling 5,761 shares were executed across six transactions in the final five minutes of the session, thereby pushing the price higher by 2c or one per cent to close at Lm1.98.

A similar monetary gain, which equates to an up tick of 1.4 per cent, was registered by Malta International Airport which topped Lm1.48, its highest price for the past five weeks.

Elsewhere, a single sale for 3,000 shares of Plaza Centres was executed at the 65c level which represents a 1c discount to its previous closing level, while Simonds Farsons Cisk declined 1c5 to 75c, which is deemed to be a strong support level. The day's turnover amounted to 18,079 shares which were exchanged across six transactions.

Consumer lenders lead Tokyo stock fall

The London market made further progress yesterday, helped by a late rally on Wall Street overnight and strong results financial information group Reuters. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent extending its gains over the past three trading days to 2.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the mid-cap FTSE 250 was 0.4 per cent higher.

Pleasing results from chemicals group Syngenta helped European equities nudge higher but caution remained as Peugeot blamed high raw materials costs on its falling margins. By mid-morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 gained 0.3 per cent, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 0.2 per cent. In Paris, the CAC 40 added 0.3 per cent and London's FTSE 100 gained 0.4 per cent.

Overnight in the US the main indices closed modestly higher after a mixed earnings outlook. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.5 per cent higher and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.6 per cent.

Falls in consumer finance providers and internet service providers led losses in Tokyo stock markets. The Nikkei 225 average slid 0.8 per cent. The broader Topix dropped 0.9 per cent. Consumer finance firms tumbled after reporting disappointing profits, which triggered warnings from brokerages on the companies' future earnings.

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