Stock exchange back in negative territory

Following the mid-week break due to yesterday’s Victory Day public holiday, trading on the Malta Stock Exchange resumed this morning with the local equity market moving back into negative territory. The MSE Share Index reversed some of last Tuesday’s gains as it shed 0.2% to close at 3,382.164 points following declines in the share prices of Bank of Valletta plc, Malta International Airport plc and Middlesea Insurance plc.

BOV’s equity closed below the €3.20 level for the first time in two months. The share price of BOV declined by 0.6% to the €3.18 level on volumes of just over 5,600 shares. Meanwhile HSBC Bank Malta plc again touched its 2010 low of €2.80 during the session before edging 0.4% higher to close at the €2.84 level. Almost 9,650 HSBC shares changed hands today.

Malta International Airport plc traded lower for the third consecutive session despite last week’s strong traffic results. MIA’s equity shed a further 0.6% today to the €1.55 level. The share price of the airport operator declined by 1.9% since the last Friday’s publication of the August passenger numbers. The statistics showed a 13.4% rise in passenger movements during August to an all-time high of 427,924 movements on the back of the increased seat capacity which also reached a new record of 536,495 seats. Further details on traffic results available at http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2010/august-traffic-results-mia15/.

The equity of Middlesea Insurance plc closed at its lowest level since 22 June. A renewed bout of sale orders forced the share price to close 3.8% lower at €1.01 on volumes totalling just over 7,000 shares.

(Rizzo, Farrugia & Co. (Stockbrokers) Ltd have today launched a mobile version of latest MSE news on their website.)

www.rizzofarrugia.com.