Financial News
Muted trading activity
Local equities resumed last week's downward trend after last Monday's respite, with the index down 0.024 per cent to close at 5,323.966 level. With the exception of IHI and HSBC trading volumes remained on the low side.
A total of 5,272 Bank of Valletta shares changed hands with prices ranging between Lm3.88,8 and Lm3.89,9 with the share price closing at Lm3.89 - just 0c9 below last closing price.
Although there was no change in the closing price of HSBC Bank (Malta) plc, trading in this share was somewhat heavier with a traded volume of 31,562 shares, spread over 31 transactions all at Lm2.09.
Once more, trading in IHI shares was notable with 15 transactions totalling a volume of 66,166 shares, seeing the price trend up a further cent to close the day at €0.95. The positive sentiment around International Hotel Investments following last week's announcement of a series of agreements with a subsidiary of Wyndham Hotel Group, Corinthia Palace Hotel Co Ltd and CHI Ltd persisted. This augurs well for trading in IHI for the rest of the week.
An encouraging number of trades (six trades totalling a volume of 4,080 shares) were witnessed in Middlesea Insurance, whose share price closed 0.4 per cent up to Lm2.56.
Elsewhere, trading activity in Malta International Airport, Maltacom and FIMBANK shares was rather bland, with just 5,785 shares in seven deals being traded between the three securities.
Japan's Nikkei 225 closes above 16,000
Yesterday European equity markets were unable to build on a positive start to trading and moved lower by mid-morning in spite of encouraging overnight gains on Wall Street and Asia. The Eurotop 300 fell 0.2 per cent while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax lost 0.1 per cent. The CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.2 per cent.
London equities fell as a slew of blue-chip companies traded without further rights to their latest dividend payment and an output warning from British Energy pushed the power sector lower. As 10 of the FTSE 100's constituents went ex-dividend, the senior index slipped 0.7 per cent. However, the FTSE 250 edged 0.1 per cent higher.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed above 16,000 for the first time since May, boosted by strength in domestic and export stocks. The Nikkei 225 average rose 255.17 points to 16,071.36. The Topix managed a 1.5 per cent increase to 1,629.73.
US markets were poised to open lower as investors digested the latest government data on consumer price inflation. An hour before markets opened, S&P 500 futures were 1.12 points below fair value, while Nasdaq Composite futures were 0.61 points below fair value.
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Valletta Fund Management (tel. 8007 2344) and Bank of Valletta plc (Tel 2131 2020).