Financial News
Equities continue to gain
It seems that local investors were only too happy to see the end of the weekend and, as soon as the Malta Stock Exchange opened for business yesterday, continued with their quest to buy and accumulate more shares. Activity was, once again, spread across a wide number of equities and bonds, with substantial volumes going through across the board.
HSBC Bank Malta was the day's top gainer as aggressive demand saw the price better by 18c or 3.3 per cent. During the session at total of 12,855 changed hands across 18 transactions, pushing the price back up to the Lm5.70 level.
Lombard Bank rocketed to a new record high of Lm6.15,2 as two investors swapped 1,000 shares at this level. The price is set to trade even higher as bids in the market are marked at Lm6.22.
Strong demand for Maltacom shares saw the price gain almost two cents to close the day at Lm1.38,9. During the session 10 trades were executed, most of them buy orders, with a total of 16,350 shares exchanging hands.
While Global Financial Services Group continued to do well, chalking up a further three cents gain.
The day's top loser was International Hotel Investments which succumbed by 5.4 per cent on low volume selling pressure. Simonds Farsons Cisk too declined, although by the slimmest of margins.
Oil breaches $70 as Katrina hits New Orleans
European shares lost ground yesterday as oil prices rallied to fresh nominal record highs and the insurance sector braced itself for the effects of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. With markets in London closed for a holiday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 slipped 0.1 per cent to 1,162.54, Germany's Xetra Dax fell 0.5 per cent to 4,762.30 and France's CAC-40 shed 0.1 per cent to 4,337.52.
Oil prices hit a fresh nominal record high above $70 a barrel yesterday as oil producers and refiners shut down production in the path of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico. Front-month Nymex West Texas Intermediate for October delivery peaked at $70.80 a barrel in early trade, before trimming gains to stand at $69.20 as the hurricane's strength was downgraded. Nevertheless, the storm still remains a significant threat to oil production and refineries in the region.
The insurance sector was the biggest loser as investors assessed the possible cost as Hurricane Katrina neared landfall in the US.
Japanese stocks fell sharply yesterday morning, hit by the rise in oil prices to record nominal highs above $70 a barrel. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 index plunged one per cent to 12,319.52, also hit by the rise in oil prices.
The Topix dropped 0.8 per cent to 1,261.92. The rise in oil prices hit exporters particularly hard, since other economies that are destinations for Japanese exports, such as the US, are regarded as more sensitive to oil prices than Japan.