The Malta Stock Exchange Index dropped just over four points, or 0.1 per cent, yesterday. Trading activity was lacking as just 14,447 shares across 19 deals changed hands in just three equities.
Bank of Valletta plc shares fell by 1c9, or 0.7 per cent, to close at €2.810 as just 10,377 shares were traded across fourteen deals.
Shares of the local telecommunications provider, Go plc, meanwhile added 1c, or 0.7 per cent, to end the day at €1.360 in a single deal of 2,000 shares.
Closing unchanged, at €2.980, was HSBC Bank Malta plc. The retail bank’s stock opened the session 2c higher but settled back to its Monday closing price by session’s end. Trading was exceptionally light as just four deals for a total of 2,070 shares were executed.
The corporate bond market was also exceptionally quiet as just €114,840 nominal across 16 deals were traded in just eight bonds. The big movers in the session were the 6.2%-6.8% International Hotel Investment Plc € 2013 bond and the 6.25% Corinthia Finance plc € 2016-2019 issue, which added €6.000 and €5.100, or 6.4 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. Yet trading in the two issues was light as just €5,000 and €5,400 nominal, respectively, in two separate individual deals were traded.Finishing in negative territory was the 7.5% Mediterranean Investments Holding plc EUR 2012-2014 bond, which shed €2.000, or 2.4 per cent in a single deal of €1,398 nominal.
Weekly US economic review
In a persistently sluggish US real estate market, housing starts and permits for future home construction fell in April as an overhang of previously owned homes continues to be a deterrent to builders from taking on new projects. In data released by the Commerce Department last week, housing starts dropped 10.6 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 523,000 units, from a revised level of 585,000 units the previous month. The foreclosure crisis, currently plaguing real estate prices across the nation, also continued to dampen building permits for future home construction, which fell by 4.0 per cent to a 551,000-unit pace last month. They were depressed by a 8.8 per cent drop in the multi-family segment.
US industrial production, meanwhile, was flat in April as the Earthquake and ensuing Tsunami in Japan in March interrupted the supply of parts to auto makers. Despite the overall lack of growth in output, last month’s figure did see an increase of 0.8 per cent in mining and a 1.7 per cent rise in utilities. Analysts were expecting a 0.4 per cent rise for the period over the revised 0.7 per cent increase witnessed in March.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) released the minutes of its April Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The minutes indicated that most Fed officials prefer to raise current record low rates before trimming the assets from the central bank’s balance sheet when the time comes to tighten policy. They also showed that many officials had concerns of increasing inflation pressures before the recent rise in oil prices abated. Yet they stressed that discussions did not indicate that the Fed was ready to raise rates any time soon.
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.