The Malta Stock Exchange Index closed at a new record high yesterday for the second day running spurred by further gains in HSBC Bank Malta and Middlesea Insurance. Yesterday was the last day when investors buying Bank of Valletta shares qualified for the one-for-one bonus issue. This means that following yesterday's session, holders of BOV shares have had their shares doubled.
A few investors left it to the last day to purchase the equity, with an aggregate 39,504 shares, traded across 87 deals. The share price remained practically flat at the Lm7.40 level.
Among its peers, shares of HSBC Bank Malta rallied further, adding another 0.5 per cent, to close at the Lm8.29 level. The equity even traded at a new record high of Lm8.32 during the session as supply started to dry up.
Also in the banking sector shares of Lombard Bank suffered renewed selling as the share price gave up a further 3.7 per cent, falling below the Lm8 level for the first time this year.
In the rest of the equity market, International Hotel Investments shares also finished in the red, declining by 2.3 per cent to €0.84 while Middlesea Insurance maintained their positive momentum, this time closing up by 10c at Lm4.20.
No change in price was registered in the other equities trading during the session which included Malta International Airport and Maltacom.
Tokyo halts trading amid panic selling
The reputation of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the world's second largest by market capitalisation after New York, was left in tatters yesterday when it was forced to close 20 minutes early because its trading system was on the verge of collapsing. This was the latest in a series of incidents involving problems with its technology including a total system collapse last November that stopped trade for nearly an entire day and a computer glitch that contributed to a $350 million loss at Mizuho Securities.
JPMorgan Chase yesterday said defaults on credit card debt were offset by cost cuts and the proceeds from a sale, helping the third largest US bank by assets to report growth of 65 per cent in fourth-quarter profits, ahead of expectations. JPMorgan said fourth quarter profits were $2.7 billion, or 76 cents per share, compared with $1.7 billion, or 46 cents per share, in the comparable period a year ago. Net profits included an after-tax gain of $752 million from the sale of BrownCo, the bank's online brokerage arm. Revenues grew by six per cent compared to the previous year, to $13.7 billion, but declined by five per cent from the prior quarter. European stocks fell sharply after a number of US technology companies reported disappointing results, while Tokyo equities fell sharply for a second-straight session. By midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was off 1.3 per cent, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax shed 1.5 per cent. In Paris, the CAC 40 slid 1.1 per cent and London's FTSE 100 fell one per cent.
London's equities market was sharply lower yesterday after panic selling forced Tokyo markets to close early.