Following Thursday’s announcement that Emirates International Telecommunications (Malta) Limited (EIT) intends to sell its 60 per cent stake in GO in the ‘short-term’, the equity of the quad-play telecom operator plunged a total of 12.5 per cent during the final two sessions of last week.
Yesterday afternoon, EIT issued a press release explaining it had just initiated the disposal process and as such has not yet identified a buyer for its shares.
It confirmed it would be holding on to its shares in the property company, Malta Properties Limited, which was in the process of being spun-off from GO.
Following this latest announcement, GO's share price rebounded by 1.6 per cent during this morning’s session to recapture the €3.20 level on strong volumes of 124,282 shares.
The best performing equity today was Malta International Airport with a rally of 9.4 per cent to yet another all-time high of €4 across nine deals totalling 20,299 shares.
Last week, the airport operator revealed record passenger numbers for the first six months of 2015 and upgraded its 2015 passenger growth forecast to +4.6 per cent. MIA is scheduled to publish its interim financial statements next Wednesday.
In the banking sector, Bank of Valletta’s equity edged 0.7 per cent higher to regain the €2.29 level across 13 deals totalling 52,350 shares.
Similarly, the share price of Lombard Bank touched a fresh 2015 high of €1.96 before easing back to end this morning’s session at the €1.95 level which only represents a minimal increase over the previous closing price. Activity was high with over 62,000 shares changing hands today.
The only other positive performing equity was Tigné Mall with a 2.9 per cent increase to a fresh all-time high of 89c on volumes of 28,000 shares. The company is scheduled to publish its interim results on August 10.
On the other hand, Plaza Centres eased by one per cent back to the 95c level across three trades totalling 15,550 shares.
Similarly, Mapfre Middlesea retreated by 2.2 per cent back to the €1.75 level on shallow volumes of 2,100 shares.
Meanwhile, Medserv held on to its all-time high of €2.37 as a further 2,400 shares traded at this level. Likewise, RS2 Software held on to the €2.25 level on shallow volumes of 380 shares.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index trended higher for the ninth time in the last 10 sessions with a further 0.2 per cent increase to 1,128.381 points in line with the continued retreat in the benchmark 10-year German Bund yield to 0.673 per cent - the lowest level since July 9. Meanwhile, the 10-year yields of Spain and Italy were relatively unchanged.
On the corporate bond market, last week Mediterranean Investments Holding published the allotment policy with respect to its recent €20 million bond issue.
The applications received from Maturing Bondholders were met in full and the company allotted 26.745 per cent of any additional amounts applied for by maturing bondholders.
No allocations were made to the other applicants. Trading is expected to commence next Monday.
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