Financial news

The MSE index closed modestly higher during yesterday's session at the Malta Stock Exchange as minor declines in major banking equities were offset by gains elsewhere in the market. As a result, the index closed just 0.078 per cent higher at 5,157.166 points.

HSBC shares attracted the highest value of business for the day, with 29,546 shares carrying a market consideration of Lm61,461 exchanged across 27 deals. The share price was down a mere 0c5, to close the day at Lm2.08. At the end of the session, 1,400 shares were best bid at Lm2.07 against supply of 311 shares offered at Lm2.08.

Middlesea Insurance shares continued to recover further ground as the equity advanced for the seventh day in a row as 500 shares were exchanged at the Lm2.19,1 level, an increase of 1.91 per cent or 4c1 than its previous closing level.

Also on a positive trend remained shares of International Hotel Investments which extended their gains by a further two per cent or €0.2 to close the session at €1.02. The day's activity consisted of 22,800 shares which were exchanged across seven trades.

Bank of Valletta shares ended below what was deemed a psychological support level at Lm4 as investors offloaded shares down to Lm3.95,1 level, only to recover back to Lm3.99 by the end of the session. The day's turnover amounted to 5,940 shares which were exchanged across 16 transactions. At the end of the day, best demand was for 100 shares at Lm3.95 while best supply stood for 1,500 shares at Lm3.99 level.

Elsewhere in the market two investors exchanged 760 shares in Maltacom at Lm1.58 level. Datatrak shares lost one cent as 2,635 shares were traded in one single transaction. Simonds Farsons shares gained two cents or 2.63 per cent to close the session at Lm0.78. Malta International Airport maintained its previous closing price of Lm1.38 as merely 820 shares were traded in today's session.

Positive performance by European equities

European equity markets were a little higher yesterday as carmakers and mobile telecom groups rallied, while insurers made strong earnings-driven gains, countering losses from banks and drugs stocks. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.1 per cent, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax added 0.3 per cent, the CAC 40 in Paris dipped 0.1 per cent and London's FTSE 100 was unchanged at 6,125.5.

A bounceback in some blue-chip stocks was counterbalanced by sharp falls in consumer finance companies, leaving the Nikkei 225 up only 0.3 per cent. The broader Topix fell 0.2 per cent, hit by a steep decline in banking shares, which have a particularly high weighting in the index.

Wall Street stocks pared much of their earlier losses on Monday as gains from Yahoo and bid news at American Power Conversion countered earlier falls driven by weaker-than-expected sales figures at Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer. At the close of trading in New York, the S&P 500 was up 0.04 per cent; the Nasdaq Composite settled up 0.6 per cent. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was ultimately dragged lower by Verizon and Wal-Mart, and finished down 0.03 per cent .

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