Equity trading was muted during yesterday's session at the Malta Stock Exchange, with most investors preferring to sit on the sidelines to wait and see in which direction the market will move next. Sustained selling activity for the second consecutive session almost completely eroded the strong grains registered by Maltacom shares earlier in the week. On Monday, Maltacom shares gained almost four per cent but this prompted certain investors to take advantage of the unexpected upward move and offloaded shares onto the higher bids.
During yesterday's session, a total of 10,800 Maltacom shares were exchanged across four transactions, forcing a 2c5 or 1.8 per cent decline to the Lm1.35c level.
On the contrary, Middlesea Insurance shares ended the day higher as demand, which was not previously listed on the board, came into the equity market with just 15 minutes of trading left to spare. The resulting action was that the price notched higher to close at Lm3.26c as 3,647 shares, having a market consideration of Lm11,876, were purchased in rapid succession across seven trades. Bank of Valletta shares remained supported at the Lm5 level with a total of 4,650 shares being transacted across eight trades. At the end of the session a further 859 shares remain on offer at the same price.
Techs and oils the main drivers on world markets
European bourses rose yesterday, recovering some of the losses of the previous session, driven by a strong technology sector after the Nasdaq recorded its fourth closing gain overnight in New York. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.4 per cent to 1,157.61 with the Xetra Dax up 0.3 per cent to 4,666.66 in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 in Paris 0.4 per cent higher at 4,3330.08. London's FTSE 100 in London made gains of 0.6 per cent at 5,248.8. On Wall Street the Dow Jones fell slightly to 10,513.89 but the Nasdaq added 0.4 per cent to 2,143.15.
The information technology sector was the strongest gainer, up 1.1 per cent in Europe after the US tech-laden Nasdaq Composite in New York recorded its fourth straight gain overnight.
The price of US oil climbed again above $61 as Emily, at the moment rated as a tropical storm, led to hurricane alerts for some Caribbean islands. Nymex West Texas Intermediate was up 31 cents to $60.93 a barrel. BP rose 1 per cent to 625?p, Cepsa of Spain soeared 3.5 per cent to €41.85 and Statoil of Norway added 1.7 per cet to NKr146.75.
Tokyo shares were marginally lower yesterday, as investors took profits following a string of solid gains on the stock market. Investors also exercised caution ahead of a slew of first-quarter results set to be released next week. The benchmark Nikkei 225 average was 0.3 per cent lower at 11,659.84, while the broader Topix index was 0.03 per cent lower at 1,185.7.