No place for the faint-hearted

As history continues to unfold before our eyes, international stock markets continue to gyrate widely; record losses gave way to record gains, only to suffer debilitating losses once again. The world's weather vane, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, came back from its worst week ever to record a staggering one-day gain of 11% on Monday, its biggest one day rally since 1933.

The relief was short-lived as the Dow fell back 8% on Wednesday - this time on recessionary fears. With Americans in the throes of the worst financial crisis in decades, a tough job market and falling house prices, the sharp drop in retail sales, as released by the US Commercial Department, was hardly surprising.

Yet, this unpalatable report is an accurate indication that after a gruesome month with mammoth government intervention to avoid financial meltdown, stock markets now have recession as the next monster to battle against.

Thankfully, a ray of sunshine can still be seen far out on the horizon. Warren Buffet, one of the world's most successful investors revered for his uncanny stock-picking abilities, was quoted on Friday as saying "Bad news is an investor's best friend... It lets you buy a slice of America's future at a marked-down price."

Investors in Malta may have decided to take a leaf out of the guru's book. After a more than uninspiring start to the week which saw the MSE index hit yet another low for 2008, at 3,447.97, buying interest returned to on Tuesday. The major banks rallied and largely held on to their gains, as did GO plc (GO). This week's podium sees Go up 5% on the week, HSBC Bank Malta plc (HSB) 3.5% higher and Bank of Valletta plc (BOV) 2.8% stronger. The MSE index closed the week up 1.375% at 3,519.719.

BOV stemmed the previous two weeks' losses, rebounding in the early part of the week. After dipping to a mid-session low of €3.549 on Monday, it recovered to close practically unchanged at €3.59. It rallied strongly on Tuesday, advancing steadily from a €3.59 open to a €3.72 close for a one-day gain of 3.6%.

BoV hit an intra-week high of €3.75 on Wednesday but did not keep up the tempo for the rest of the week, ending Friday at €3.70. However, this was still a 2.8% gain on the week for a total turnover of 79,828 shares for a value of €293,846.

BoV was the most active equity, accounting for 33% of the week's total equity turnover by value. At the close of trading, the best bid was for 200 shares at €3.66 with supply of 227 shares at €3.70.

HSB gave up 5c on Monday to trade at a year's low of €2.85. It regained this loss on Tuesday, registering a 10c spurt on Wednesday as HSB regained the €3 mark in the week's most active session which saw just over 25,000 shares change hands. It was stable on Thursday and after spending most of Friday at €2.95, bounced back to €3, to end the week 3.5% ahead.

Turnover totalled just under 76,000 shares for a value of €222,428. At the end of the session, bids for 800 shares started at €2.91 while supply of 4,500 shares was at €3.

International Hotel Investments plc dropped a cent to €0.97 on relatively strong volume of just under 100,000 shares on Monday. It was stable for the rest of the week, gaining a cent in the week's final two deals to close unchanged. Turnover for the week totalled 124,712 shares for a value of just over €121,000.

GO was the week's best performer, rising 5%. It started out stable at €2 on a single 400-share deal on Monday and went on to register gains for the rest of the week, albeit still in very thin trade climbing to €2.02 on Tuesday, €2.05 on Thursday and €2.10 on Friday. Turnover for the week amounted to 11,441 shares for a value of €23,611. At the end of trading, demand for 400 shares started at €2.03 with supply of 6,437 shares at €2.10.

Malta International Airport plc slumped 15c on Wednesday with the day's four deals for 4,600 shares all effected at €2.75. It only dealt again on Thursday, at the same level to close the week a sore 5.2% lower on a total turnover of all of 6,300 shares. At the end of Friday's trading, demand of 900 shares was only present at €2.61; supply of 2,070 shares started at €2.73.

Fimbank plc only traded on Friday, losing further ground to $1.60, down 1.8% on turnover of 8,550 shares for a value of €10,135.

Lombard Bank plc declined 7c to €2.90 at Monday's open, but rallied at the end of the day to close at €3. It was generally stable till Friday when it gave up 5.1c to close the week at €2.949 - 0.7% down. In all 28,219 shares changed hands for a value of €84,137.

Middlesea Insurance plc (MSI) lost ground for the second consecutive week, crashing a smarting 6.8% to €2.75. The drop was recorded in two stages; it first gave up 14.9c to €2.80 on Thursday, losing another 5c in Friday's two trades. MSI was the week's worst performer.

Simonds Farsons Cisk plc started out 5c higher at €2.65, but eased back to €2.63 to end the week 1.1% higher, as a total of 1,500 changed hands.

RS2 Software plc (RS2) and Crimsonwing plc (CW) both only dealt on Tuesday. The former gave up 2.2% to €0.803 on a 30,000-share deal; CW too traded in negative territory, 0.4% lower at €0.498 on 49,000 shares.

Maltapost plc traded in a range of €0.75 to €0.818, closing at this latter price, a miniscule 0.2% lower on turnover of 16,000 shares.

Grand Harbour Marina plc (GHM) was practically unchanged at €2.199 on a turnover of 15,300 shares, transacted on Tuesday and Thursday, the only two days it was active.

On Wednesday, GHM announced that during the third quarter, the company concluded the long-term licence of another 30-metre berth and also enjoyed high transient occupancy on the superyacht berths.

As a result, the financial performance continues to exceed that achieved during the same period of last year, however the results of the last quarter of the financial year ended December 31, 2007 results were exceptional and are unlikely to be repeated.

Closed ended investment scheme, Santumas Shareholdings plc, was stable at €3 on the week's only deal for 477 shares.

In the Government Bond market, turnover by value amounted to €1.63 million with 16 deals struck in 11 stocks. In the corporate bond market, there were 76 deals for a total turnover value of €454,775. Turnover value in the Treasury Bill market totalled €2.4 million.

This report was provided by J.G.P. Bonello, managing director of Financial Planning Services Limited, of Marina Court, G. Cali Street, Ta' Xbiex, which is licensed by the MFSA to provide investment services, including stockbroking (IS/3608). The company is involved in acting as sponsoring stockbroker and corporate stockbroker. The directors or related parties, including the company and their clients, are likely to have an interest in securities mentioned. E-mail: info@bonellofinancial.com or 2134 4243.