Financial news

Medium-sized companies acted as the main catalyst for yesterday's positive showing on the Malta Stock Exchange which saw the Index inching higher by 0.39 per cent. Unsurprisingly, volumes were pretty low as investors extended their weekend given today's holiday.

FIMBank staged a positive rebound after the recent downside pressure. The dollar denominated equity rose by nine dollar cents or 6.92 per cent to close off the day at $1.39. Activity was spread over four deals with an aggregate of 10,568 shares. As the session terminated, demand for 207 shares stood at $1.29 against a further supply of 300 shares at the said closing price.

Shares in Malta International Airport were yesterday's best performers, as the airport operator gained 7.5 per cent, alas on relatively low volumes, as only two deals were transacted with a restricted volume of 2,000 shares. MIA shares closed at €2.18.

Go shares registered the largest number of trades and volume as 16,369 shares were exchanged over six deals. Unfortunately, this activity failed to spur the equities higher as the telecommunication company's share prices remained anchored at the starting blocks with the equity closing changed at €1.45.

HSBC Bank Malta was the only laggard on the day, as the equity opened immediately lower at €2.151 and maintained the said price throughout the session.

Low trading activity in Bank of Valletta and 6pm Holdings resulted in an unchanged price for both equities as the banking equity closed at €2.17 and the technology related company terminated at €0.59c.

Weekly US economic review

The economic data issued over the past week was relatively positive, now this may be either because the US economy is hopefully reaching a bottom or that the start of the year was so horrendous that any figures printed thereafter would look relatively upbeat.

Housing market data seems to be on the forefront of all this optimism, in fact new home sales data rose 4.7 per cent last February. But despite the increase, February sales were the second lowest ever after the drop in January to the slowest pace in records going back to 1963. This figure needs to be taken into perspective as new home sales represents only a small segment of the broader housing market.

The most important piece of economic data was the final release of the fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product where previous figures were revised slightly lower at - 6.3 per cent from - 6.2 per cent but still the figure was better than expectations which stood for a decline of 6.6 per cent. The main catalyst for the economic deterioration in the last quarter of 2008, were plunging US corporate profits which left a significant mark on the overall figure. Domestic profits of financial firms skidded $178.7 billion compared with a $75.5 billion decline in the third quarter. Non financial corporations' domestic profits tumbled $89.1 billion in the fourth quarter after increasing $52.1 billion in the prior period. Overall, the economy expanded 1.1 per cent in 2008, the smallest advance since 2001, after growing two per cent in the prior year according to the Commerce Department.

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.