The final trading session of the week was characterised by high volumes in a number of equities, namely Bank of Valletta plc, International Hotel Investments plc, Malta International Airport plc and Simonds Farsons Cisk plc.

The 3.7 per cent rise in IHI's equity coupled with the gains in MIA (+0.6 per cent) and Farsons (+1.7% per cent) helped the MSE Share Index advance by 0.4 per cent to end the week in positive territory at 3,120.445 points.

The bulk of today's activity took place in BOV shares with over 105,000 shares changing hands today as most outstanding bids at the €2.45 level were satisfied. BOV's equity closed the week 2 per cent lower with the market awaiting the imminent publication of the September 2011 full-year results.

IHI's share price advanced to 82c on total volumes of 91,100 shares with the equity of Farsons up 1.7 per cent at €1.83 on unusual activity amounting to 36,666 shares. Farsons recently published its July 2011 interim results showing a 21 per cent increase in profits to €2.6 million.

The share price of the airport operator advanced by 0.6 per cent to close at a three-month high of €1.66 with activity increasing to over 54,000 shares. Volumes in MIA's equity climbed to 102,920 shares during the past five trading sessions.

The IT companies RS2 Software plc and Crimsonwing plc saw their share prices close the day unchanged. RS2's equity continued to remain active at a price level minimally below its 2011 high of €0.60 while Crimsonwing initialled dropped back to its 2011 low of 30c before recovering back to a close of 33c8.

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