Financial News

Local equities declined for the seventh time out of the past eight sessions yesterday with sellers continuing to offload equities while buyers continue to craftily lower their bids to avail themselves of better prices.

Simonds Farsons Cisk was the day's most liquid equity with 91,681 shares carrying a market consideration of Lm68,765, being exchanged across eight transactions. Activity was mainly driven by the more aggressive sellers who cleared out all outstanding bids in the market causing the price, as a result to drop three cents or 3.85 per cent to close the session at 75c.

International Hotel Investments was the day's top gainer as 19,900 shares were purchased across five transactions. The equity gained one per cent to terminate at €0.96, its highest level in six months.

Bank of Valletta continued to drift lower, declining a further 2c or 0.5 per cent to its lowest level since mid-June. The day's activity consisted of 5,379 shares which were swapped across eight transactions, with sellers squeezing the price down to Lm3.87.

Malta International Airport improved by the slimmest of margins as two investors exchanged 1,000 shares at the Lm1.44 level, while a similar single transaction for just 100 shares of Middlesea Insurance brought a 3c or 1.2 per cent slide to its price which terminated at Lm2.53.

Initial buying activity in Maltacom gave way to sellers later on in the session, which forced the price to close 0.2 per cent lower at Lm1.94,5. Separately, the company announced that the group finance director would be relinquishing his position.

Oil prices at lowest levels since June

European equities nudged higher yesterday as mining and technology gains offset falling oil stocks after crude prices fell to near two-month lows on commodities exchanges. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was little changed at 1,359.23, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was 0.1 per cent higher at 5,815.57. In Paris, the CAC 40 was fractionally lower at 5,130.27, and London's FTSE 100 was a little higher at 5,898.4.

On the oil market, Nymex crude fell below $72 a barrel, its lowest level since June 16 as the effect of the easing geopolitical environment added to concerns that slowing economic growth could dampen demand.

Trading volumes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section reached their highest level in two months yesterday, as investors scrambled to adjust their positions in different sectors.

But despite the high volume of trading, the overall result was inconclusive. The Nikkei 225 was down 0.3 per cent at 16,419.42, but the Topix rose 0.1 per cent to 1,631.46.

Many Japanese export stocks rose moderately, boosted by a fall in oil prices, which helped increase confidence in the oil-sensitive US economy as well as lowering the costs of manufacturers, many of which are export specialists.

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Valletta Fund Management (tel. 8007 2344) and Bank of Valletta plc (Tel 2131 2020).