Negative day for equities amid low turnover

The local equity market continued to trade lower with the MSE Share Index closing in negative territory for the fifth consecutive trading session. The Index closed another 0.5% lower as six out of the eight active equities traded lower. Subdued trading activity persists as only €39,165 worth of shares traded today.

Bank of Valletta plc moved lower for the third successive session with its share price easing a further 0.8% back to the €3.185 level on volumes of just over 4,000 shares. GO plc also slumped 2.1% to €1.85 on a single trade of 1,900 shares.

The equity of the airport operator eased 1.3% lower to €1.54 across three trades amounting to 6,300 shares. Malta International Airport plc dropped 2.5% since the August Traffic Results announcement on 3 September as the strong passenger movements registered in August failed to generate support for the equity. Further details on the August traffic results available at http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2010/august-traffic-results-mia15/.

FIMBank plc dropped back to its multi-year low of US$0.95 on volumes of 5,200 shares. The other active equities include MaltaPost plc (-5.6% to €0.85), IHG Holdings plc (-0.7% to €0.99), Middlesea Insurance plc (unchanged at €1.00) and Lombard Bank Malta plc (+0.4% to €2.74).

This afternoon Medserv plc announced that it entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian company, T.E.A. Shipping to form a joint-venture to procure further business in the oil and gas industry within the Italian jurisdiction. Medserv’s equity has been inactive since 9 August with no bids in sight whilst further offers are placed at the last traded price of €4.28.

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