Local equities turned direction yet again during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange, with the major banks continuing to move in tandem. In fact both Bank of Valletta and HSBC Bank Malta traded lower by 4c or 0.6 per cent to close the day at Lm6.85.

Trading activity in Bank of Valletta was the more voluminous with 11,424 shares being exchanged across 22 trades. Most of the deals were sale orders as offer prices were lowered to fill in fresh bids on the market. At the end of the session, 552 shares remained unfilled on the bid side at Lm6.85 while 4,239 shares were offered at Lm6.86. HSBC Bank Malta's decline was brought about by 5,500 shares which were sold across 12 deals between Lm6.85 and Lm6.88, the same trade range as Bank of Valletta.

Elsewhere in the market, Malta International Airport was the most liquid equity with 15,560 shares being exchanged across 10 trades. All trades went through at the Lm1.51 level which represents a slim decline to the previous session's closing price.

Maltacom gave back 0c5 or 0.3 per cent as 7,320 shares were struck across 10 deals. Initially, the price seemed set to decline as sellers competed among themselves by lowering their offer prices. But fresh supply came to the market, sustaining the price at the Lm1.70 level.

European bourses higher as results impress

European equity markets were higher yesterday as impressive corporate earnings and gains in the financial sectors added to improving interest rate sentiment from the US overnight. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.3 per cent to 1,246.46, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was up 0.3 per cent to 5,187.73. In Paris, the CAC 40 was up 0.4 per cent to 4,600.43, and London's FTSE 100 added 0.1 per cent to 5,520.6.

In Europe and Fortis, the Dutch-Belgian financial services group, reported a forecast-beating 94 per cent increase in third-quarter net profit, thanks to higher capital gains. The company also said it would embark on a screening of top managers, resulting eventually in improved revenues, although the revamp was likely to cost €200 million. Shares, which have risen eight per cent this month, fell 1.7 per cent to €25.17.

Wall Street's winning run continued on Tuesday after the US Federal Reserve bank appeared to be nearing an end to the current interest rate-hiking cycle, as the minutes from the last rate-setting meeting noted that "policy setting would need to be increasingly sensitive to incoming economic data". This left the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.5 per cent to 10,871.43, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.5 per cent to 2,253.56. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to 1,261.23. Japanese share indices ended on Tuesday largely flat, as gains among retailers were offset by losses in technology stocks and banking. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 per cent to 14,708.32 while the bank-heavy Topix fell 0.1 per cent to 1,526.54.