The Malta Stock Exchange index made a slight gain of just over three points to close at the 3,869.756 level yesterday in another day of heavy volume in banking shares.
After falling nine cents on Monday, shares in Bank of Valetta plc rebounded and made a slight gain of 1c, to close at €3.050, in continued heavy volume of 107,977 shares across 58 deals. On Monday, 195,556 shares of BOV were traded across 71 deals.
HSBC Bank Malta plc shares also managed to close in positive territory, gaining one cent, to end the session at €3.510 in 21 trades for a total of 40,486 shares.
Closing out trading in the banking sector were the shares of Lombard Bank plc, which closed unchanged at €3.000, in low volume of three deals across 3,350 shares.
Shares of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc, which last traded in January, managed a marginal gain of 0c1, to finish at €1.801 in a single deal of 1,000 shares.
Finishing on the downside were shares of International Hotel Investments plc, which dropped 0c5 to end the day at €0.97, in robust volume of 103,101 shares across nine deals.
Also witnessing trading during the day, yet failing to register a change in their closing prices, were the shares of Malta International Airport plc, and Middlesea Insurance plc. The equities closed at €1.800 and €1.07, respectively on light trading volume of 4,000 and 1,000 shares, respectively.
Trading in the corporate bond market finished mixed as four out of the fourteen bonds to trade in the session closed higher, while three closed lower.
Weekly US economic review
In the United States, the unemployment rate fell to nine per cent in January from 9.4 percent the previous month, which is the lowest level since April 2009. However, employment rose by 36,000 jobs, the smallest gain in four months due to winter storms, after rising by 121,000 in December. This was much lower than the 146,000 increase that was expected. This data showed that the number of payrolls declined in the construction and transportation industries, since these were affected the most by the bad weather, however factory employment rose the most since August 1998.
On a positive note, the data relating to factory orders showed that the pickup in activity in the manufacturing sector continued during the last month of 2010. The number of new orders received by American factories increased by 0.2 per cent in December, after an upwardly revised increase of 1.3 per cent which was registered during the previous month. This data also showed that shipments for finished products also remained strong and was contrary to the 0.5 per cent decline expected. In the services sector, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index also exceeded expectations as this increased at its fastest pace since August 2005, to a level of 59.4 in January from 57.1 in December.
Finally, a separate report showed that consumer borrowing increased for the third consecutive month in December to $2.41 trillion. This represents an increase of $6.1 billion and follows a gain of $2.02 billion during the previous month. This was led by the first increase in credit card charges in more than two years, however borrowing remained below the $2.58 trillion peak which was registered during July 2008.
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.