Financial news
Prices up on soft buying
Local investors stocked up on local equities during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange although volume was understandably soft given the peak of the summer holiday season. Nevertheless, this helped the MSE Index notch up its six consecutive session of gains.
Once again the financial sector of the market proved to be pivotal for a positive ending to Tuesday's session, with heavyweight HSBC Bank Malta gaining a further penny to reclaim the Lm1.93 level. The day's activity consisted in 16,600 shares that were swapped across seven transactions. The national affiliate of the "world's local bank" has, slowly but surely, recovered most of the ground lost following the previous Monday's session where the equity commenced trading without the right to receive a gross interim and special dividend of 10c6.
Bank of Valetta reclaimed the Lm3.60 level as 3,040 shares were purchased across eight trades. The equity is still range bound, oscillating for the past few weeks within just a few cents.
The day's top gainer was GlobalCapital which recouped five cents or 2.6 per cent as two investors swapped 500 shares at the Lm1.95 level.
Elsewhere, activity was relatively strong in Malta International Airport, as in excess of 10,500 shares were transacted. The equity dropped a penny on initial selling activity, but the day's parity of Lm1.37 was restored before the end of the session.
Single trades characterised activity in Maltacom, Simonds Farsons Cisk and Plaza Centres with all three deals being struck without affecting their respective closing prices of Lm1.44, Lm1 and 69 cents respectively.
European stocks decline
Yesterday, banks were the main source of losses on European equity markets after UBS warned about a weaker second half, while Goldman Sachs raised $3 billion to bail out one of its funds. By lunchtime, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 lost 0.3 per cent while in Frankfurt, the Xetra Dax shed 0.2 per cent and in Paris, the CAC 40 shed 0.6 per cent.
In London the FTSE recouped sharp opening losses as mining stocks continued Monday's gains. After falling almost 60 points in opening trade amid continued fear about the health of global credit markets, the FTSE was up 9.7 points at mid-day. Worries about US credit-market losses spreading to the Asia Pacific region flavoured trading yesterday. Shares generally fell or rose only weakly, with Bangkok, Jakarta, Sydney and Seoul leading the drop. Japanese share prices edged higher as investors picked up bargains following a string of declines, with commodity-related stocks enjoying the biggest gains. The benchmark Nikkei average and the broader Topix index rose 0.3 per cent respectively.
US stock-index futures rose after Home Depot Inc.'s earnings topped analyst forecasts and EMC Corp. sold shares of a unit at the top end of a projected range in an initial public offering.
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.