The share index recovered some of yesterday’s losses as it bounced back by 0.25 per cent to 4,566.103 points on improved trading activity amounting to €267,000.
Most notably, FIMBank advanced 1.3 per cent to a fresh two-year high of 77c5US across 26,000 shares. The trade finance specialist is due to hold its annual general meeting on Tuesday.
HSBC and Malta International Airport closed at €1.65 (+0.9 per cent) and €4.37 (+0.7 per cent) respectively on insignificant volumes. MIA shareholders will receive the recently approved final gross dividend of 10c77 per share (net: 7c) on May 19.
On Tuesday, the airport operator published its traffic results for the month of April revealing a further 5.7 per cent growth in passenger movements to 415,409 following a 3.8 per cent increase in seat capacity.
Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta (37,563 shares) and International Hotel Investments (28,850 shares) traded unchanged at the €2.27 and 62c levels respectively. Last Friday, BOV reported an improved net profit figure of €44.6 million for the first six months of its financial year ending 30 September 2016. The directors declared a gross interim dividend of 3c91 per share (net: 2c54). This is payable on May 27 to shareholders as at close of trading on May 10.
GO managed to recover from an intra-day low of €3.45 to close unchanged at the €3.50 level on volumes of 6,900 shares. The quad-play telecoms operator is due to hold its AGM on 11 May, during which shareholders will, among other resolutions, be asked to approve the payment of a final net dividend of 10c per share (payable on May 13).
RS2 Software (26,855 shares) touched an intra-day high of €3.82 before easing back to yesterday’s closing price of €3.79,9 across 26,855 shares. Last week, RS2 revealed that its post-tax profits for the year ended December 2015 surged by nearly 70 per cent to €4.87 million (2014: €2.88 million). The directors recommended a final net dividend of 2c78 per share (2014: 2c22) to all shareholders as at close of trading on May 19 (payable on June 30) subject to approval at the upcoming AGM to be held on June 23.
The directors also recommended a bonus share issue of one new share for every 18 shares held (cut-off date: May 19) and a five for three share split (cut-off date: June 30).
Also in the IT sector, 6pm Holdings retained its all-time high of £1 on light volumes totalling just 2,600 shares.
Two single deals of 5,000 shares each pulled the equities of Medserv and Tigne’ Mall plc 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent lower to the €1.78,4 and €1.14,9 levels respectively.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index suffered its steepest decline in over two weeks as it dropped by 0.19 per cent to a one-week low of 1,145.066 points, reflecting the widened spreads between the yields of the German Bund and of the two largest peripheral countries – Italy and Spain.
Indeed, while the 10-year benchmark German Bund yield eased from yesterday’s high of 0.23 per cent to a low of 0.19 per cent today, the Italian and Spanish counterparts gained ground. Most notably, the gap between Italian and German 10-year bond yields stretched to 131 basis points – its widest level in nine weeks.
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