The Maltese market closed in the red on Thursday, with MSE Equity Total Return Index ending the session 0.15% lower, to 9,417.227 points. Best performer was Malta Property Company plc, added 4.92% to close at 0.64, followed by FIMBank plc which gained 1.45% to close at 0.7. GO plc and HSBC Bank Malta plc also performed well by adding 0.82% and 0.61% to close at 4.94 and 1.64 respectively. The biggest faller was Bank of Valletta plc. It slid 5.15% to close at 1.38. RS2 Software plc and Main Street Complex plc both were down 1.41% and 1.56% to close at 1.40 and 0.63 respectively. Malta International Airport plc, Plaza Centres plc and BMIT Technologies plc closed unchanged.

European stock markets fell on Thursday as fears over economic growth and the impact on banks of an accommodative policy message from the U.S. Federal Reserve outweighed any broader lift from its abandoning of further interest rate hikes this year. The pan-European STOXX 600 index dipped 0.1% to close at 380.69. Germany’s DAX fell 0.5% to close at 11,549.96. London’s FTSE 100 index gain 0.3% to close at 7,355.31.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday as a sharp surge in tech shares helped to lift key equity benchmarks. The S&P 500 rose 1.1% to end near 2,855. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced less than 0.01% to end around 25,964. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.4% to finish around 7,839.

Google has formally revealed its plans for a video game streaming platform called Stadia

Stadia is offering games on demand streamed through the cloud. It planned for launch this year and allows you to stream games across a variety of devices with very little friction. Stadia could be a very big deal for gaming going forward.

The platform aims to bring together playing, spectating, and developing games onto a single platform. Things like game updates and patches and system requirement are effectively a non-issue, because the game is running on Google’s servers, rather than your local device.

Google VP Phil Harrison promised the technology will work across desktops, laptops, TV, tablets, and phones. In a demonstration, the same demo was seen across a Chromebook, smartphone, tablet, and TV, the latter through Chromecast Ultra HDMI streamer. Harrison also promised that the platform will embrace cross-platform play.

You will be able to use existing controllers on laptops and PCs, and Google will offer its own Stadia controller links to whichever device you’re playing on, and it sports a dedicated Google Assistant button for referencing walkthrough videos if you get stuck.

This article was issued by Nadiia Grech, junior trader at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article are being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.