Financial News

The buying frenzy at the Malta Stock Exchange showed no sign of abating during yesterday's trading session, as the MSE Index chalked up an unparallelled 16th consecutive session of gains.

HSBC Bank Malta was the day's biggest gainer as 7,788 shares were purchased across 14 trades. The price jumped higher by 4c or 0.5 per cent to close at an all time high of Lm7.29.

Bank of Valletta shares had a particularly volatile session. Initial activity saw a number of bids competing against each other for the limited number of shares on offer. This saw the price climb by as much as 7c to an all time high of 7.33.

This level held up for just a few minutes as a large and sudden supply of shares came to the market, filling orders down to the Lm7.25,1 level. Nevertheless, demand kept coming and ensured the price closed slightly in positive territory at Lm7.26.

Maltacom shares followed a rather similar pattern, with initial buying activity helping the price climb to the Lm1.88,5 level before falling back on fresh selling volume. However, the equity still managed to close a penny higher at Lm1.86c.

Volume remained particularly strong in Malta International Airport, as a further 25,900 shares were exchanged across five transactions forcing the price to close better by the slimmest of margins at Lm1.53,2.

Global Financial Services Group was the day's worst performing equity as 26,280 shares were struck immediately after the opening bell, bringing the price down by 5c or 4.2 per cent to Lm1.15.

Europe eases despite drug strength

European equity slid into negative territory again in mid-afternoon as corporate news flow and trading volumes were expected to be relatively light in the final week before Christmas. Pharmaceutical companies across Europe were lifted by hopes that the competitive threat from cheaper generic drugs might be blunted after a critical US patent ruling in favour of Pfizer.

The FTSE Eurotop 300 dipped 0.1 per cent while the German Xetra Dax also lost 0.1 per cent and French CAC 40 was flat at 4,704.71.

Stocks looked set for a solid start on Monday, with a raft of merger and acquisition activities and a legal victory for Pfizer expected to give the market a boost. The leading indices just came off a week of mixed trading. Lingering fears about inflationary pressures continued to weigh on investor sentiment and neither a pullback in crude prices nor a sharp drop in bond yields was able to bring out the buyers.

London's equities markets began the week in positive territory yesterday helped by gains for the pharmaceutical sector after US drugmaker Pfizer won a key court ruling blocking generic competition for its Lipitor cholesterol treatment.

Bargain hunting in both export and domestic sectors pushed up the Nikkei yesterday, after three straight days of falls. Export stocks were also boosted by a recovery in the dollar from a seven-week low against the yen.

The Nikkei 225 stock average closed up 1.4 per cent at 15,391.48. But the Topix rose only 0.5 per cent to 1,589.24 - dragged down by a moderate fall in banking stocks and static prices in steel stocks.