The equity market ended mixed during yesterday's trading session at the Malta Stock Exchange, although volume trading remained high.
Investors sold Bank of Valletta shares to book profits, following the recent leap in price. As a result the equity clawed back 14c or two per cent to close the day at Lm6.55.
On the contrary, HSBC Bank Malta gained and the share price temporarily crossed paths with Bank of Valletta. A total of 6,475 shares were exchanged across 22 transactions and that was enough to see the price closing at a fresh all time high of Lm6.60.
A new record close was also registered by Malta International Airport shares which gained strongly on lack of supply. In fact only 668 shares were exchanged during the session at the Lm1.50 level, which represents a 5c premium to Tuesday's close.
Maltacom shareholders had plenty to cheer about as the price continued to increase in value on the back of sustained buying activity. Almost 30,000 shares were exchanged during the session with the price settling at the Lm1.65 level.
Elsewhere in the market, Simonds Farsons Cisk shares recouped slightly to close the day at Lm0.76 while Datatrak Holdings gained further ground to close the day 2.2 per cent higher at Lm0.46.
Lombard Bank and Middlesea Insurance ended the day marginally lower at Lm7.09 and Lm3.35 respectively.
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Japan's stock market edged up yesterday to fresh multi-year highs, following Tuesday's sharp rises in an hour and a half of fevered trading after a system crash. The Nikkei 225 stock average ended the day up 0.2 per cent to 13,894.78. The Topix rose 0.1 per cent to 1,474.25. Domestic and export-focused stocks turned in a very mixed performance. The banking and securities sector both rose by a little under one per cent.
On the European front, stock markets cancelled early gains, as investors absorbed mixed corporate earnings and trod cautiously ahead of the European Central Bank's interest rate decision yesterday but in the meantime had corporate earnings to consider.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was almost flat, down 0.03 per cent to 1,200.98, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax was 0.1 per cent lower at 4,916.93. In Paris, the CAC 40 lost 0.3 per cent to 4,422.72 and London's FTSE 100 dipped 0.1 per cent to 5,341.2.
Overnight in the US, the Fed voted unanimously to raise interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point to four per cent. Although this was widely expected, the accompanying statement was upbeat about growth and cautious about inflation, leading the market to price in further rate rises at the next two open market committee meetings.
Wall Street was little moved, and investors consolidated recent gains, leaving the main stock indicators slightly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 0.3 per cent to 10,406.77, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.3 per cent to 2,114.05.