Financial News

Trading in local equities continued at a brisk pace during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange with buyers and sellers agreeing to trade close to previous closing levels. As a result the MSE index closed relatively unchanged at 5,089.932 points.

Medserv was the day's only gainer as two investors swapped 2,000 shares at the Lm1.42 level. This represents a Lm0.01 or 0.7 per cent premium to Tuesday's level as well as a new all time high.

GlobalCapital was the day's worst performer as selling activity brought the price down by 2c5 or 1.2 per cent. An aggregate 1,500 shares were offloaded across five transactions at Lm2.10. Following these deals, more supply hit the market with offers placed down to the Lm2.09 level.

Malta International Airport weakened slightly as 2,360 shares were struck across five deals. The equity initially dropped to Lm1.365 before recovering slightly to trim its decline to just Lm1.369.

HSBC Bank Malta was the day's most actively traded equity with 16,006 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm33,714 being exchanged across 18 transactions. The equity briefly traded at the Lm2.11 level before closing unchanged on the day at Lm2.10.

Activity in Bank of Valletta consisted of 12,840 shares which were all swapped at the Lm3.70 level across 10 trades. Similarly, FIMBank traded steady at $1.74, although the volume transacted was only of 2,600 shares.

Elsewhere in the market, 13,740 shares of International Hotel Investments were transacted at the €1.15 level, whilst Middlesea Insurance was supported at the Lm2 level with fresh demand meeting supply totalling 5,000 shares.

European equities higher

European equities moved higher yesterday thanks to a number of solid earnings releases, but gains were capped by losses in the heavily weighted pharmaceuticals sector. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.1 per cent, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax gained 0.3 per cent and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.2 per cent.

London markets took a breather in mid-morning trade having earlier added to the previous session's record levels. The strong showing from commodities stocks helped blue chips make further progress in early trade, but stocks going ex-dividend weighed on the FTSE 100 by midday. The index traded flat at 6.345.7.

The Nikkei 225 slid to its lowest close in three weeks, finishing 0.7 per cent lower as yen strength continued to push down export stocks. The broader Topix, less weighted toward heavy exporters, declined only 0.2 per cent.

Wall Street stocks were set for a higher start after a better-than- expected set of productivity data raised confidence over the strength of the US economy. Less than an hour before the opening bell, S&P 500 futures were up 2.2 points at 1455.5 while Nasdaq futures were up 8.2 points at 1811.8. Fair value for the S&P 500 is 1452.15 and 1802.15 for the Nasdaq.

The financial news was compiled by Valletta Fund Management (tel. 8007 2344) and Bank of Valletta plc (Tel 2131 2020). BOV and VFM are licensed by the MFSA to conduct investment services business.