The Share Index gained 0.22 per cent to 4,338.653 points on heightened activity with over €318,000 worth of shares changing hands - the highest level of trading registered in the last three weeks. Among the 10 active equities, six closed the day higher.

The most actively traded equity was GO with 48,293 shares changing hands for a value of €167,000. The share price advanced by 2.9 per cent to an almost two-month high of €3.55.

Yesterday, the company’s board of directors declared a net interim dividend of 33c13 per share, which is the equivalent value of the entire shareholding in its subsidiary company Malta Properties Company (MPC).

Each GO shareholder as at close of business tomorrow will receive one MPC share for every GO share held. MPC shares are expected to be admitted to the official list of the Malta Stock Exchange on November 23 and trading is expected to commence the following day. GO shares will trade ex-dividend as from Thursday.

Bank of Valletta added 0.4 per cent to the €2.36 level on relatively healthy volumes of 31,134 shares. The bank is expected to publish its annual preliminary results by the end of next week. Moreover, the investing public is also awaiting further developments in connection with the bank’s intention to issue a subordinated debt security.

Mapfre Middleasea continued to recover from its recent declines and closed the day up by 0.5 per cent at the €2.21 level across 6,000 shares.

The other positive performers of the day were Malita Investments, Tigne Mall and Plaza Centres. Trading volumes in each of these property companies was on the low side.

The share price of Malita jumped by 6.1 per cent to 93c5 on a miniscule deal of 1,100 shares and Plaza edged up two per cent to regain the €1 level on 5,000 shares. Likewise, Tigne Mall advanced by 2.3 per cent to a new all-time high of 95c on low activity of 1,200 shares.

Meanwhile, Malta International Airport closed down one per cent at the €3.85,1 level across 12,111 shares.

Recently, the company published the traffic results for September in which it revealed that it registered an 8.6 per cent increase in passenger movements to a new record for the month of 502,823 passengers.

In the meantime, Ryanair announced that it will be basing a third aircraft in Malta and it will operate an additional nine new routes as from the next summer season. The low cost carriers also confirmed that it will increase the frequency of some of the routes it currently operates.

A last minute trade of just 2,000 shares in RS2 Software dragged the equity 2.8 per cent lower to the €2.42 level.

Single trades of 5,000 shares and 3,000 shares were also registered in Grand Harbour Marina plc and MIDI plc, leaving the equities unchanged at the €1.00 and €0.36 levels respectively.

Shortly after the close of today’s session International Hotel Investments issued a circular in connection with the recently announced bonus shares. Last Tuesday marked the cut-off date for shareholders to gain entitlement to the three bonus shares for every 100 shares held. The bonus shares are expected to be admitted to listing shortly after allocation on or around Friday.

On the bond market, the RF MGS Index advanced by 0.14 per cent to 1,136.947 points as the 10-year German Bund yield opened lower at the 0.56 per cent level as a deeper-than-expected decline in German producer prices added pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to consider further stimulus.

Nonetheless, the benchmark Bund rallied to 0.62 per cent this afternoon after two members of the ECB's governing council expressed resistance toward an imminent expansion of quantitative easing in the single-currency bloc.

The ECB's governing council is scheduled to meet in Malta on Thursday and markets are expecting President Mario Draghi to highlight a willingness to act to boost inflation, but nonetheless stop short of adjusting the current asset-purchase programme of €60 billion per month.

Following the recent Malta Government Stock issues, the two retail tranches were listed yesterday but failed to trade today. The indicative bid prices of the Central Bank of Malta for both issues were higher than the offer prices.

In fact, the bid price for the two per cent MGS 2020 issue stood at 106.8 per cent (compared to an offer price of 106.25 per cent) whilst that for the 2.3 per cent MGS 2029 stood at 104.17 per cent (compared to an offer price of 102.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, trading in the new Hili Properties bond issue is expected to commence on Thursday.

www.rizzofarrugia.com