Financial News
Investors on hold before results
Volumes dwindled to their lowest levels for the past few weeks during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange as investors adopted a wait-and-see approach prior to HSBC Bank Malta's full year financial results which are due to be published on Friday.
HSBC Bank Malta was, relatively speaking, the most actively traded equity of the day with an aggregate of 14,613 shares, carrying a market consideration of Lm31,051, being exchanged across 15 transactions. From the very outset, investors seemed reluctant to push the price any higher than its previous closing level of Lm2.13 and subsequent sell orders brought a slim decline in price, which ended at Lm2.124. With just three days to go before the results are announced, investors kept their cash on the sidelines opting to eventually deploy the funds with the benefit of knowledge, rather than speculate beforehand. Given the substantial weighting of HSBC Bank Malta, which is the largest listed company by market capitalisation and therefore influences the general sentiment of the market, activity elsewhere in the equity market was kept to a bare minimum.
In fact, barely 554 shares of Bank of Valletta and 2,200 shares of Simonds Farsons Cisk were struck across a total of just five deals with their prices closing unchanged at Lm3.705 and 82c respectively.
The market did not react to news, issued earlier in the morning, that Maltacom had acquired the entire shareholding in the local Digital Terrestrial Television (DDTV) network operator Multiplus Ltd for an undisclosed sum. The announcement was issued contemporarily on the London Stock Exchange and the Malta Stock Exchange since the company enjoys a dual listing.
FTSE higher despite real estate weakness
European equity markets rallied following a number of strong earnings, but gains were fragile after the previous session's losses. UBS, the Swiss investment bank, reported record full-year profits that beat expectations thanks to strong growth in its wealth management unit. By mid-morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.1 per cent, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.4 per cent respectively.
London equities moved higher despite an uncertain outlook from British Land hampering the real estate sector. By late morning, the FTSE 100 was 13.7 points higher at 6,367.1 and the FTSE 250 was 22.6 points firmer at 11,477.5. In Japan dealing rooms reopened after Monday's market holiday in bullish mode, with investors increasingly persuaded that a domestic recovery is now properly underway. The day's trading took the Nikkei 225 Average up to its May 2000 level as real estate issues in particular hit prices last seen in the final days of Japan's bubble economy.
US stock-index futures climbed on speculation that takeovers and company buybacks may revive a rally in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. The S&P 500 has dropped 1.2 per cent since reaching a six-year high on February 7.
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