Financial news

Following the weekend break, local investors returned to the equity market with a cautious attitude, forcing the MSE Index to close lower by 0.4 per cent at 3,303 points. Activity was spread across five equities with a relatively low volume activity.

FIMBank was the day's worse performer with the trade finance specialist continuing to drift lower on soft buying activity notwithstanding a positive sounding interim directors statement issued in mid-November.

The equity shed 6.7 per cent to close at a multi-year low of $1.30 following the exchange of 2,200 shares spread over four transactions.

Bank of Valletta, the day's most active and liquid equity, commenced trading at Friday's closing level of €3.62, however subsequent selling activity brought about a 2c decline with the equity closing the session at €3.60.

On Friday, the company announced that it will be convening its shareholders for the 35th Annual General Meeting on December 17. Apart from the ordinary resolutions, a number of extraordinary resolutions are also being proposed detailing changes to the articles and memorandum of association, HSBC Bank Malta traded in counter tendency to the other two banking equities, moved higher by a single cent on the purchase of 4,000 shares which were executed across four trades, all at the €2.90 level.

Elsewhere, Maltapost was the day's top gainer as the postal service incumbent moved higher by 1.3 per cent on the single purchase of 2,089 shares at €0.77. Similarly, a single trade in Go brought two investors to exchange 5,000 shares without altering its previous established price of €1.90.

US economic review

The main event over the past week was the announcement of a new programme launched by the US Federal Reserve, with the backing of the Treasury. Last Tuesday, the Federal Reserve together with the Treasury announced an $800 billion lending facility to support the market for consumer debt securities. The fresh money will be mainly used to loosen up the household finance market, but a share will aid the asset-backed securities market in a programme called the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).

Meanwhile, economic data flowed constantly throughout the week, with no earth-shaking figures but rather a continuation of the recent downward trend.

The second print of the third quarter real Gross Domestic Product showed a 0.2 per cent downward revision to -0.5 per cent. This was mostly attributed to a 0.6 per cent downward revision to consumer spending.

Meanwhile, new home sales fell 5.3 per cent in October on the heels of a downward revision to September figures, with home sales now down by 40.1 per cent from a year earlier.

On a slightly more positive note, consumer confidence in November rose slightly to 44.9 from 38.8 previously, nevertheless it remains at low levels. The rebound was due entirely to future expectations, as assessments of current conditions continued to worsen.

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.