Trading activity increased during this morning’s trading session on the Stock Exchange particularly in the banking sector with 200,000 FIMBank plc shares changing hands at the $1.02 level representing a 2.9 per cent drop from yesterday’s close.

Despite today’s drop, the equity of the trade finance specialist still ended as the best performer of the week with a 27.5 per cent rise ahead of the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for January 31.

Bank of Valletta plc initially traded up to a new 20-month high of €2.26 but eased back to close the day unchanged at the €2.25 level.

Volumes remained high with a further 48,000 shares changing hands. During the week, BOV’s equity advanced by 3.7 per cent on high activity amounting to 238,901 shares.

Almost 28,000 HSBC Bank Malta plc were exchanged this morning with the bank’s share price easing a further 0.7 per cent lower to the €2.70 level for a total weekly decline of 1.5 per cent.

In the property segment, MIDI plc slid 1.8 per cent lower to the 27c level on a single trade of 49,500 shares. Meanwhile, last year’s new entrant, Malita Investments plc, registered a further one per cent increase to close at a new all-time high of 52c5 on volumes of 30,000 shares.

Yesterday afternoon, the company published its first set of results covering the nine months ended September 30.

During this period, Malita registered a net profit of €0.75 million mainly reflecting the leases from the sites of MIA and VCP as well as the uplift in the fair value of the same investment properties.

On the IT front, Crimsonwing plc recovered from an intra-day low of 53c to end this morning’s session unchanged at the 54c level across 52,500 shares. Crimsonwing’s equity shed 5.3 per cent this week.

Meanwhile, RS2 Software plc shares continued to trade at their all-time high of 85c on a deal of 7,460 shares representing a 3.7 per cent weekly rise – the seventh successive weekly gain.

Elsewhere in the market, GO plc continued to edge higher with a further 1.6 per cent rise to the €1.27 level on volumes of just over 5,000 shares.

Meanwhile, International Hotel Investments plc plunged 6.1 per cent back to the 75c1 level during the final minutes of today’s session on insignificant volumes amounting to just 130 shares.

MaltaPost plc’s share price eased another 2.1 per cent lower to the 95c level on volumes of 8,712 shares.

Yesterday, the postal operator announced that the new subsidiary that will be set up to offer insurance services (as approved by the annual general meeting held on January 10) will act as an agent of Middlesea Insurance plc.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index eased 0.2 per cent lower for the first time in 11 sessions to 1,009.05 points as benchmark 10-year German Bund yields surged to the 1.6 per cent level.

This reflects the increased appetite for riskier assets following the successful bond auctions of Spain and Italy.

www.rizzofarrugia.com

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