Increased trading activity took place in the shares of Bank of Valletta plc today in the aftermath of the results of the offer to the shareholders of the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund.

Yesterday evening, BOV announced that it received acceptances totalling 95.2 per cent of the shares of the fund.

During this morning's session, over 26,000 shares traded with the price holding onto the €2.70 level after briefly touching a high of €2.71.

In yesterday's announcement BOV also mentioned that payments of the amounts due will reach investors by Wednesday

Apart from BOV, the equities of GO plc and MaltaPost plc also closed today's session unchanged while the share price of HSBC Bank Malta plc edged up 0.7 per cent to €2.92.

The slight gain in HSBC helped the MSE Share Index close 0.2 per cent higher. Despite the slight recovery today, the Index still posted a weekly decline of 0.32 per cent as most of the active equities closed lower.

In contrast, foreign equity markets staged a strong rally over the past week after the Greek parliament voted in favour of the new austerity measures. The main international indices climbed by more than four per cent this week but the Maltese equity market failed to reflect this latest upturn.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index continued to decline edging 0.2 per cent lower to 972.103 points as benchmark Eurozone 10-year yields surpassed the three per cent level following the vote taken by the Greek parliament in favour of the austerity measures and increased indications of a further rate hike next week by the European Central Bank.

Although the Central Bank of Malta lowered the bid price of the 5.25 per cent MGS 2030 by 102 points this week to 100.48 per cent, sustained demand for the stock helped the price rise to 101.51 per cent.

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