Financial news
Record closing high for IHI
The local equity market ended the week on a positive note as minimal increases in International Hotel Investment and Middlesea Insurance moved the index up 0.24 per cent to close Friday's session at 5,088 points.
International Hotel Investments was the day's top gainer as demand for the share kept flowing into the market thereby moving up the price by 2.7 per cent to close the session at €1.099. The day's activity consisted of 26,994 shares which were exchanged across four transactions.
Investors also remained positive about Middlesea Insurance shares which gained one cent or 0.49 per cent to close the session at Lm2.05. Volume was relatively low with just 1,000 shares being traded across two transactions.
Similarly, Malta International Airport shares registered a minimal monetary gain of 0c5 during yesterday's session as two investors exchanged 2,900 shares at the Lm1.385 level.
HSBC Bank Malta lost 0c4 or 0.2 per cent to close the day at Lm2.109. Activity was also relatively low with barely 3,210 shares changing shares across six transactions. At the end of the session 200 shares remained unsatisfied on the bid side at Lm2.09 against a further supply of 1,000 shares at Lm2.109.
Activity in Bank of Valletta consisted of 4,995 shares which were exchanged across seven transactions leaving the price unchanged at Lm3.68. Similarly, Maltacom closed the day unchanged at Lm1.48, even though 10,800 shares were exchanged across six transactions.
Europe tracks fall for second day
European equities fell by mid-morning yesterday, tracking overnight declines on Wall Street as weakness in the engineering, real estate and financial sectors weighed. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.4 per cent while Germany's Xetra Dax slipped 0.2 per cent and the French CAC 40 lost 0.4 per cent.
US stocks slumped on Thursday, as concern about rising Treasury bond yields offset better than expected earnings from a number of companies. Interest rates have reached their highest levels since mid-August, and sparked an uneasy mood in stocks after their rally on Wednesday.
London equities fell in midday trade yesterday, tracking a sell-off overnight on US markets. Banks, mining stocks and oil majors all lost ground, with small gains for defensive stocks. The FTSE 100 was 0.3 per cent weaker, and the mid-cap FTSE 250 fell 0.4 per cent with investment companies falling furthest as world equities markets dipped.
Poor quarterly results for NEC Electronics hit tech stocks, helping push the Nikkei down a touch. NEC Electronics plummeted 4.3 per cent after reporting wider quarterly losses than the year before blaming slow demand. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.2 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.1 per cent.