Markets continue higher

U.S. stocks finished sharply higher for a second straight day on Tuesday, helped by gains in Amazon.com and Google-parent Alphabet ahead of their results and by optimism over progress on a U.S. pandemic relief package. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 475.57 points, or 1.57%, to 30,687.48, the S&P 500 gained 52.45 points, or 1.39%, to 3,826.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 209.38 points, or 1.56%, to 13,612.78.

European shares rose on Tuesday on hopes of a faster economic recovery, with some upbeat economic growth data and encouraging outlook on big names such as Airbus and LVMH putting a pan-regional index on course to erase last week’s hefty losses. Europe’s STOXX 600 index closed higher for a second straight session, up 1.3% on broad-based gains.

Maltese markets meanwhile dropped with the MSE Equity Total Return Index closing down 1.19 percent to 8,157.339 points. FIMBank Plc led the losses with shares down 28 percent at $0.36, followed by Tigne Mall Plc which lost 11.59 percent to €0.725. HSBC Bank Malta Plc meanwhile posted the largest gain, up 6.02 percent at €0.88.

Regulators to investigate Gamestop, AMC trading frenzy

Hedge funds, small investors and stockbrokers are bracing for tougher U.S. markets regulation, with officials expected to meet this week to assess the fallout from a social media-driven trading frenzy that has roiled stocks and silver prices. Mass buying by amateur traders over the past two weeks has driven wild price gyrations in companies that big U.S. fund managers had bet against, including videogame retailer GameStop and cinema operator AMC Entertainment.

Their U.S.-listed stocks had scaled as high as 2,300% and 800%, respectively, since mid-January, fuelled by posts on the popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets. These retail-favourite stocks however have tumbled as their brokers imposed buying curbs, with GameStop now down 80% from a peak a week ago and AMC off 60%. GameStop’s Frankfurt-listed shares sank another 28% in early deals, while AMC was down 9.6%.

Source: Reuters

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