Financial News
Equities maintain positive stance
The local market closed off a very busy week on a positive note with the MSE index gaining a further 1.5 per cent to finish at an all-time high of 4,432 points.
Bank of Valletta was the most voluminously traded equity with investors pouring into the market to purchase shares to avail themselves of the 15c gross final dividend payment. The price moved north by 14c1, to end the week at the lofty price of Lm6.73c9. The equity will start trading ex-dividend as from next Monday.
Trading in HSBC Bank Malta remained strong with the equity enjoying an increase in value on the back of BOV's price movement. Shares rallied 11c to close at a historical high level of Lm6.75.
A similar volume of shares was struck across a single deal in FIMBank shares, which remained unchanged at the $1.85 level. Maltacom shares continued to perform well, capping the week with a further 3c gain. Activity remained strong with a total of 47,095 exchanged during yesterday's session. The price closed the week at Lm1.75.
Malta International Airport shares rose to a fresh intra-day high of Lm1.65 but this level did not manage to hold for more than a few minutes. Supply did finally come to the market, although not in copious amounts. By noon the price closed just a penny higher at Lm1.61.
The same monetary gain was registered by Plaza Centres which moved back to the Lm0.62 level while 2,000 shares of San Tumas Investments went through the exchange without affecting its previous closing price of Lm0.93c1.
In the fixed interest sector of the market, activity was spread across four corporate bonds and 13 government stocks.
Lower open for bourses as carmakers fall
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average ended the session 0.5 per cent higher, after strong monthly sales data from retailers and a sanguine assessment of the US economy by the Federal Reserve chairman pushed Wall Street broadly higher on Thursday. Retailers accounted for the majority of the top 25 best performers on the New York Stock Exchange.
European stocks were a little lower yesterday as investors took profits after the previous session's gains but nerve-easing data on US inflation and gains for oil stocks helped cap losses. By mid-morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.1 per cent to 1,221.02, while Frankfurt's Xetra Dax fell 0.2 per cent to 5,003.87. In Paris, the CAC 40 shed 0.3 per cent to 4,490.75.
London shares had a mixed start to trading but the main equities market was up in spite of subscriber fears at BSkyB. The FTSE 100 was up 7.4 points or 0.1 per cent at 5,439.3 in morning trade while the mid-cap FTSE 250 was down 10 points or 0.1 per cent to 7956.1.
Japan's stock exchanges suffered a further blow to their reputation yesterday when the Nagoya Stock Exchange suspended trading because of a computer problem - only three days after a system crash forced a shutdown of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and two regional exchanges. The Financial Services Agency responded by ordering all six of Japan's exchanges to inspect their computer systems and file a report on their findings.