HSBC and BOV fall below €2.90

The local equity market is still characterised by subdued sentiment and low volumes as investors remain wary of the political unrest in Libya and the developments in Japan.

The MSE Share Index was down another 0.4 per cent today to 3,544.422 points due to the decline in the share prices of HSBC Bank Malta plc and Bank of Valletta plc. International stockmarkets hit hard following the widespread selling pressure in Asian stock markets with the Nikkei 225 Index shedding 10.6 per cent.

Major European stockmarkets are down between 2.5 per cent and four per cent and the US markets opened more than two per cent lower.

This was the third consecutive session of declines for Bank of Valletta plc as its share price shed another 1.4 per cent to drop back to the €2.89 level on volumes of just over 17,600 shares.

Similarly, HSBC Bank Malta plc shed 0.3 per cent to a new 2011 low of €2.89 across nine trades totalling 9,446 shares.

The only other active equity was Lombard Bank Malta plc which maintained the €3 level across volumes of 5,717 shares. Lombard’s shares are still trading with the entitlement to the €0.11,5 final gross dividend per share. Equity will turn ex-dividend as from March 25.

Middlesea Insurance plc this morning published its 2010 full-year results showing a pre-tax profit of €6.4 million compared to a pre-tax loss of €54.4 million incurred in 2009, which reflected the full impairment of the investment in Progress Assicurazioni SpA.

However, Group profit before tax and the impairment charge decreased by 25.7 per cent from €8.7 million in 2009 to €6.4 million during the period under review.

The board of directors did not recommend the payment of a dividend.

The publication of the results failed to generate any trades during this morning’s session with offers already placed minimally below the last closing price of €1 and best bids pitched at the €0.90 level.

GO plc this afternoon published its 2010 financial results showing a significant improvement in operating profit to €22.8 million mainly due to higher revenue and substantially lower voluntary retirement costs.

Nonetheless, this improvement was wiped out by the increase in the share of loss from the group’s investment in Greece from €9.1 million in 2009 to €24.7 million in 2010.

As a result, the group posted a loss of €19.2 million for the year compared to the €6.7 million loss reported in 2009.

Moreover, the directors recommended a final net dividend of €0.05 per share which is half of last year’s dividend.

This dividend will be paid to those shareholders as at the close of trading on May 4 following approval by shareholders at the upcoming annual general meeting scheduled to be held on June 8.

Grand Harbour Marina plc are expected to publish their respective 2010 results later today with Malta International Airport plc expected to follow tomorrow.

The Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index moved higher for the fourth consecutive session as eurozone yields declined to the 3.11 per cent level on the back of a ‘flight to safety’ by investors.

The local benchmark increased by 0.2 per cent to 980.841 points with the price of the 5.25 per cent MGS 2030 increasing by 40bp to 102.33 per cent.

http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2011/full-year-results-48/

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