Financial news

Trading activity on the Malta Stock Exchange was relatively subdued during Tuesday's session, with deals being registered in eight components and the total number of transactions amounting to 19. The MSE Index continued its decline to close at 3,757 points with the largest local listing being the main drag on the Index, which was down by 1.057 per cent over its previous closing.

Transactions in HSBC Bank Malta were executed late in the session, with the first trades matched at an intraday high of €3.01, equating to a drop of 11c. Further supply side pressure caused the equity to trade even lower, thereby closing at the €3.003 level which represents a decline of 3.75 per cent with a total daily turnover of 7,060 shares.

RS2 Software lost last week's gain when two investors swapped 1,000 shares at €0.81, discounting the price by 1.22 per cent.

Bank of Valletta was seen to be trading positively throughout the session, starting off the day at its previous closing price of €4.16, with subsequent buying interest continuing to push the price higher for an aggregate gain of 2c for the day.

A volume of 2,100 shares in Malta International Airport upped the price by the slightest of margins to close at €3.04. The highest turnover for the session was registered in International Hotel Investments when 18,929 shares were exchanged across 2 transactions leaving the price unaltered at €1.05. Similarly, interest in FIMBank, GO and MaltaPost failed to change the shares' respective closing prices.

In the fixed interest sector of the market, activity was spread across one corporate bond and six government stocks with the 6.7% AX Investments 2014/16 attracting the highest turnover of 40,000 nominal, whilst the 5.9% MGS 2015 (II) registered the biggest percentage gain of 0.44 per cent moving higher to close at €106.23.

Weekly US economic review

The eurozone area recorded its first ever contraction in the second quarter, pulled down by falling activity in the largest economy in the euro-area.

The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat estimated that the 15 countries sharing the euro currency contracted 0.2 per cent after growing by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter. These numbers were in line with economists expectations.

Germany's 0.5 per cent drop was the main catalyst even though most economists were expecting a more severe drop of around 0.8 per cent. The German Bundesbank told Reuters that the dip did not warrant undue pessimism about the economy. France and Italy followed the German economy with a contraction of 0.3 per cent while the Netherlands stagnated at zero per cent.

Slowing European economies seem to be leaving the desired impact on inflation, as figures for the eurozone were lower than earlier estimated at 4.0 per cent rather than 4.1 per cent. Month on month consumer prices fell by 0.2 per cent in July, thanks to falling prices of package holidays as well as easing prices of fuel.

Meanwhile, investors confidence in Germany, increased more in August than economists expected after oil prices retreated from a record high.

This article has been prepared by Bank of Valletta p.l.c. (the Bank), which is licensed to conduct investment services business by the MFSA, for your general information only. This information is not a solicitation or offer by the Bank to acquire or sell securities. Nor does it constitute any form of advice by the Bank. Appropriate advice should be obtained before making any such decision. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance and the value of your investments may fall or rise.