The shares of Grand Harbour Marina plc (GHM), which traded for the first time today since 27 August, slipped 3.5% during this morning's session of the stock exchange to a new 67-month low of €1.65 despite an upbeat statement by its directors.
The announcement revealed that during the first nine months of 2012 GHM registered a 6.7% increase in berthing revenue as occupancy at the Grand Harbour marina in Malta remained high. Moreover, the Directors revealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the acquisition of a super-yacht berth worth €3 million together with the option of acquiring a further berth of €1.8 million.
Furthermore, the IC Cesme marina in Turkey, in which GHM has a 45% stake, continued to register increased income both from berth renting as well as from landside retail activity. A single trade of 2,900 GHM shares was executed today at €1.65 with few other bids remaining unsatisfied at today's close and lowest offers now at the €1.81 level.
The three IT equities were all active during this morning's trading session with Crimsonwing plc edging minimally higher to close at a new 25-month high of €0.40 on volumes of 2,000 shares. Similarly, RS2 Software plc maintained its 40-month high of €0.63 on higher volumes of 23,100 shares. Meanwhile, 6pm Holdings plc eased 3.2% to GBP0.30 on a single deal of just over 1,000 shares.
Elsewhere in the local equity market, the equities of the two large banks traded lower with Bank of Valletta plc's share price easing 0.8% back to the €2.38 level on low volumes of 4,920 shares. Shallow trading was also evident in HSBC Bank Malta plc which retreated by 1.5% to €2.66 across two trades totalling 3,500 shares.
Meanwhile, GO plc ended this morning's session unchanged at €1.01 after recovering from an intra-day low of €1.00 for the third consecutive session across 12,000 shares. Lombard Bank Malta plc shares also closed unchanged at the €1.78 level after failing to hold on to an intra-day high of €1.80 on low volumes of 2,000 shares.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index eased minimally lower to 999.739 points as benchmark 10-year German Bund yields moved above the 1.35% mark this morning after France's credit rating was downgraded by Moody's from Aaa to Aa1. In the afternoon, yields in Germany continued to rise closer to the 1.4% level as Moody's further stated that it will now be reviewing the credit rating of the region's two bailout funds, namely the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), in view of the downgrade of France which is one of the main contributors to these funds.
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