Financial news

Selling activity intensified during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange as an increase in volume brought further declines to equity prices.

Lombard Bank was the day's worse performer as 1,200 shares were sold across three transactions, squeezing the price lower by 34c or six per cent to Lm5.26, its lowest level in two months.

HSBC Bank Malta was the day's most liquid equity with 64,117 shares being exchanged across 63 trades. Initial selling pressure saw the equity drop to the Lm2.05 level before a few buyers came to the market, trimming the day's decline to just two cents or almost one percentage point. HSBC shares are at their lowest level since mid-January 2006.

Bank of Valletta attracted the highest value of trades as Lm203,468 worth of shares were transacted across 30 transactions. Detecting a larger number of sellers, buyers shrewdly lowered their bids, forcing a 2c5 or 0.6 per cent decline in price to the Lm3.83 level.

Selling activity in Malta International Airport saw the price decline and close at Lm1.40, which is considered as a key support level. The day's activity consisted in 18,941 shares which were exchanged across 12 transactions.

Middlesea Insurance was the day's only gainer, even though the equity only traded 0c2 or 0.1 per cent higher, as two investors swapped 1,000 shares at the Lm2.54c2 level.

Elsewhere, GlobalCapital and Maltacom traded weaker on low volume transactions to close the session at Lm2.18 and Lm1.92 respectively.

The MSE Index declined 0.8 per cent to 5,233 points, its lowest level in seven months.

Oil stocks weigh on FTSE

London equities lost ground yesterday as investors took profits in InterContinental Hotels despite robust earnings from the world's largest hotelier. Shares in InterContinental Hotels fell 1.3 per cent to 892 pence after the company reported a 30 per-cent rise in half-year profits.

However, dealers said the lack of news about a cash return to shareholders, combined with the fact that the shares have risen nearly five per cent in the past week, gave investors an excuse to sell.

The company said the UK housing market remained "healthy", with a three per cent rise in average sellling prices in the period and a strong forward order book, however investors were quick to sell into an initial share-price rally. In the wider market, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent to 5,883.5, while the FTSE 250 lost 0.3 per cent to 9,473.4 as a bright start to trading was reversed by weakness in the heavily-weighted oil sector.

German stocks fell by late yesterday morning after economic expectations in the eurozone's largest economy were shown to have fallen to a five-year low in August.

Frankfurt's Xetra Dax index reversed earlier modest gains to trade 0.2 per cent lower at 5,786.32 following data from the ZEW think tank showing a dramatic fall in economic expectations

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