Financial news

Trading during yesterday's session at the Malta Stock Exchange pushed the index marginally higher as it gained 0.2 per cent to terminate at the 3,067 level. Activity in the equity market was characterised with a higher than usual volume spread across a total of 33 deals in six different listings.

Bank of Valletta was the session's most actively traded equity when investors swapped a total of 18,240 shares over 18 deals for a market consideration of €46,814. The financial services company was a gainer for the day when fresh buying activity pushed the price by a further 3c or 1.2 per cent to close at €2.58.

FIMBank was the day's most liquid equity as 153,000 shares were exchanged over four deals. The trade finance specialist also ended the session in positive territory edging higher by 0c3 of a dollar to end the day at $1.288.

HSBC Bank Malta was the day's sole non-mover as the equity closed unchanged at €2.581. Investors exchanged a total of 7,372 shares over six deals.

GlobalCapital shares rose by 5c or 3.3 per cent to close at €1.55. Volume activity was nevertheless unsupportive as a mere 100 shares were transacted over a single deal.

Similarly, investors pushed the shares of Go upwards by a marginal 0c9 or 0.5 per cent to close the session at €1.729. Despite trading at an intra-day low of €1.72 fresh buying activity supported the price to its present standing. Trading activity for the quadruple play communications company was spread over three deals and a market value of €5,694.

Lombard Bank Malta defied the day's positive trend to register a decline in price as it shed 5c or 1.9 per cent to close at €2.65. Activity in the Bank equity was relatively muted with a single deal transacted for a market value of €2,915. In the fixed interest sector of the market, activity was spread over five government stocks and six corporate bonds. The worst performance in government securities sector was the 7.5% MGS 2011(I) which shed 110 ticks over a single deal to close at €110.14.

Weekly US economic review

In the United States the week contained a busy schedule of macroeconomic data primarily focused on the US labour report issued on Friday which resulted in a broad-based slowdown in the pace of job cuts. Counterbalancing this positive data, the unemployment rate continued to increase, revealing a labour market gripped in a very severe recession.

The Labour department revised down the number of jobs lost in the previous two months as non-farm payrolls declined by 345,000 in May, a figure well below market expectations of 520,000. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go as the unemployment rate leapt to 9.4 per cent, suggesting that US consumer spending is unlikely to recover any time soon. Meanwhile, on the business side there were some encouraging signs with the new orders of the ISM manufacturing survey entered expansion territory for the first time since the recession. In fact the sub-index for new orders reached an 18-month high to a reading of 51.1 points which consolidated previous positive data in the manufacturing sector for May which rose from a reading of 40.1 to 42.8.

Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, earlier this week warned that "sizable" job losses may still occur as recent "green shoot" signals via survey data does not translate into real data. Furthermore, the labour markets are still viewed as a lagging indicator which has dimmed hopes of a V-shaped recovery in the US economy. This scenario was reflected by weak US retail sales as rising unemployment continues to curtail consumer spending.

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.