Financial news

Local investors rotated funds out of the larger capitalised companies and into the smaller companies as witnessed by the gains registered by Simonds Farsons Cisk and 6pm Holdings, the market's newbie.

6pm Holdings was by far the day's best performer as investors suddenly scooped up as many as 7,460 shares across three transactions, thereby bringing the equity to life after a short period of lull which followed the company's listing last week. As a result the equity gained three pence or 4.5 per cent to close at the £0.70 level.

Buying activity in Simonds Farsons Cisk helped the equity climb to its highest levels since May 2005. The day's activity, in fact, amounted to 5,890 shares which were swapped across four transactions thereby pushing the equity higher by 0.9 per cent to close the session at Lm1.07.

FIMBank too moved to higher ground as buyers purchased 9,100 shares across three transactions. The equity closed 0.3 per cent higher at $1.95 which is only 1.5 per cent lower than this year's high of $1.98, reached on April 25. Separately, FIMBank announced that Global Financial Holdings NV a fully-owned subsidiary of Massaleh Investments KSCC, had transferred its holding of 18,838,319 ordinary shares in the company to its mother company who now directly holds a 45.3 per cent stake of FIMBank.

Soft selling activity in Maltacom dropped the equity once again to its lowest level this year as merely 2,900 shares were struck across two trades at the Lm1.37 level. The equity is now trading at a 13.4 per cent discount to the Lm1.55,4 level at which the government sold its 60 per cent stake in the company in May 2006 to Tecom Investments.

HSBC Bank Malta was the most liquid and actively traded equity with a grand total of 29,402 shares changing hands across 19 transactions. The equity shed 0.2 per cent of its value to close at Lm1.90,5. Elsewhere Bank of Valletta traded unchanged at Lm3.60 on a single deal of 1,000 shares.

European markets down

Yesterday, European shares edged down as banks extended their gains but investors were cautious ahead of interest rate decisions and key US data later in the week. Deutsche Bank rose 2.5 per cent after it said it saw quarterly net profit exceeding €1.4 billion. In mid-morning trade the FTSEurofirst 3000 edged 0.1 per cent lower as did the Xetra Dax and the CAC 40, while the FTSE 100 trimmed 0.4 per cent.

Japanese share prices continued to climb, paced by brokerages after Citigroup said it would buy out minority investors in Nikko Cordial. The Nikkei 225 closed up 0.9 per cent. The broader Topix index was up 1.5 per cent.

Overnight in the US multinationals have emerged as the main drivers of the current stock market rally as investors move to capitalise on the weak dollar by buying into companies with large overseas earnings. The strong performance of international companies such as Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Intel over the past six weeks has pushed US stocks to new highs, helping the market shrug off the ongoing credit squeeze and the growing risk of a US recession.

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.