Financial news

Investors decided to re-enter the equity market yesterday after several days of staying on the sidelines, pushing the index higher by 14 points, or 0.4 per cent, to close at 3357.920. Total volume traded registered at a healthy 94,989 shares across 47 deals in 10 equities.

Shares in the local IT solutions provider, RS2 Software plc, closed up 3c, or 5.7 per cent, to end at €0.56 in 20,000 shares across four deals.

HSBC Bank Malta plc, made gains yesterday by closing up 1c9, or 0.7 per cent. The stock ended the session at €2.85 as trading volume was relatively light at 11,000 shares across three deals. FIMBank plc, meanwhile, gained 1c, or one per cent, to close at $1.05 in two deals of 900 shares.

Still in the banking sector, Bank of Valletta plc, lost ground, slipping 0c4, or 0.1 per cent, to close at €3.001 in 12 trades of 12,674 shares.

Go plc made a solid showing yesterday, closing up 5c, or 2.7 per cent, to end at €1.90.

Other shares to trade on the day included those of Maltapost plc which ended down to end €0.85 in five deals of 7,868 shares.

Simonds Farsons Cisk plc traded in a single deal of 2,583 shares to close unchanged at €1.80, while Middlesea Insurance plc, whose shares have been climbing steadily of late, also finished unchanged at €1.15.

The two other shares to trade on Thursday yet close unchanged were Malta International Airport plc which closed at €1.58 in six deals of 11,470 shares, and International Hotel Investments, which closed at €0.80 in seven trades of 15,394 shares.

Weekly UK economic review

In the United Kingdom, as expected, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, held interest rates at 0.5 per cent and left its total £200 billion of quantitative easing unchanged yesterday. Officials are considering the risk of inflation against the effects of government spending cuts to tackle the record budget gap. Meanwhile, the previous day, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecast for British economic growth through 2011.

In the manufacturing sector, on a positive note, industrial production rose by 0.7 percent in May. This was almost twice as fast as analyst had expected and took the annual rate to 2.6 per cent, the highest in almost 10 years. In the meantime, April's industrial output figure was heavily revised from a decline of 0.4 per cent to a decline of 0.7 per cent. Manufacturing output increased by 0.3 per cent in May, led by increases in production of electrical and optical equipment. However, according to the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) growth in this sector slowed in June, for the first time in four months, as weaker demand in Europe hurt exports. The reading fell from a 15-year high to a level of 57.5 from a 58 which was registered in May.

Elsewhere, the services sector followed a similar pattern to that seen in the manufacturing sector as growth in the sector was at its slowest in 10 months with the PMI falling for the third time in four months to a reading of 54.4 in June from the 55.4 level of the previous month.

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.