The share price of International Hotel Investments advanced by a further 1.2 per cent to reach a new 16-month high of 90c1 across eight deals totalling 44,981 shares.
Yesterday morning, IHI held its annual general meeting during which shareholders approved all the items on the agenda including the proposed acquisition of Island Hotels Group Holdings for €50 million payable in a mix of cash and new IHI shares.
The chairman announced that the company is in discussions with the MFSA in connection with offering alternative financial instruments to the company’s free-float shareholders.
On the other hand, the share price of HSBC retreated by 1.6 per cent back to the €1.80 level on volumes of just over 64,131 shares.
The decline in HSBC outweighed the uplift in IHI to break the recent positive run of the share index which eased by 0.1 per cent today to 4,021.758 points. Despite this minor setback, the equity benchmark still ended the week 1.8 per cent higher.
Meanwhile, no changes were registered in the other five active equities including Bank of Valletta and GO at €2.29 (2,580 shares) and €3.14 (34,000 shares) respectively.
Amongst the large cap equities, Malta International Airport also ended today’s session unchanged at the €3.36 level after recovering from an intra-day low of €3.35 on low volumes of 5,800 shares.
Similarly, RS2 Software held on to the €3.40 level across eight deals totalling 35,600 shares. Earlier this week, RS2 held its annual general meeting during which shareholders approved all the items on the agenda including the final net dividend of 4c4 per share and the two-for-one share split.
The share split is effective next Tuesday including trades up to close of business today. Therefore, the equity will trade on a post-split adjusted price as from next Monday. Meanwhile, the dividend will be paid next Monday.
Malita Investments maintained the 94c level on weak volumes of 1,066 shares.
Likewise, Mapfre Middlesea ended today’s session unchanged at the €1.86 level across 4,326 shares.
On the bond market, following eight consecutive sessions of declines, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index rebounded by 0.3 per cent during this morning’s session to 1,129.425 points as the Eurozone benchmark 10-year yield slipped back to 0.9 per cent amid a revival of demand for ‘safe-haven’ assets in view of the impasse over the Greek debt deal.
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