Mild volumes again characterised this morning’s trading session. Only three equities were active with Bank of Valletta plc easing minimally below the €2.25 level on volumes of 11,332 shares.
FIMBank plc dropped back to the US$1 level on activity amounting to 26,729 shares.
Yesterday FIMBank announced that it was informed that the Malta Financial Services Authority confirmed that it has no objection in terms of the Banking Act to the change in shareholding in FIMBank.
FIMBank also stated that it was informed that a share purchase agreement has been entered into between Massaleh Investments K.S.C.C. and Kuwaiti Interests for Development Holding Co. on the one hand and Burgan Bank and UGB on the other hand.
In terms of the share purchase agreement and subject to the terms and conditions set out therein, upon completion, Burgan Bank will acquire 35,000,000 FIMBank shares and UGB will acquire 17,948,867 FIMBank shares. The total amount of 52,948,867 shares are currently held by Massaleh.
Once the transfer of shares takes place, further corporate actions are expected as had been detailed in the Extraordinary General Meeting held in January.
The only other active equity this morning was Middlesea Insurance plc which maintained the 84c level.
The MSE Share Index closed lower on the back of the losses of BOV and FIMBank to end the week minimally below last Friday’s level. However, the benchmark index still closed the month of May on the rise with two of the IT companies again ranking as star performers.
Apart from RS2 Software plc (+20.8 per cent) and 6pm Holdings plc (+17.7 per cent), the other notable positive movers in May were International Hotel Investments plc (+8.3 per cent) and Malta International Airport plc (+4.2 per cent).
Various equities were active during the final week of May with minor movements across most companies with the exception Island Hotels Group Holdings plc with a decline of 5.5 per cent to a fresh all-time low to 52c on high volumes of 247,500 shares.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index edged higher to 1,020.023 points as most MGS prices rose reflecting the downturn in yields to below the 1.5 per cent level.
This was as a result of the rise in unemployment during April announced this morning and the fact that inflation remained well below target in May adding to the pressure on the ECB to provide more policy support.
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