The share index closed in positive territory for the fourth consecutive day today as it gained a further 0.43 per cent to a four-week high 4,501.275 points.
Most of today’s trading activity took place in the equity of RS2 Software which finished unchanged at the €3.50 level across 51,530 shares having a market value of €0.18 million – representing 72 per cent of today’s total value of equities traded.
This morning, RS2 held its annual general meeting during which shareholders approved a number of resolutions including those related to the dividend payment, bonus share issue and share split. The shares of RS2 will continue to trade with the entitlement to the share split until June 30.
Besides RS2, three other equites closed the day flat. Malta Properties Company failed to hold to its intra-day high of 53c5 as the equity finished at the 50c6 on volumes totalling 10,000 shares.
Similarly, Malta International Airport (1,823 shares) briefly traded at the €4.22 level before retreating to its five-month low of €4.20, unchanged from yesterday.
On the other hand, Bank of Valletta managed to rebound from its intra-day low of €2.22,9 but still closed flat at the €2.24 level across 21,995 shares.
Yesterday, BOV issued an announcement confirming that Visa Inc. completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Visa Europe Limited in which BOV is a principal member and a shareholder.
The bank’s share of proceeds from this transaction amounts to €29.1 million comprising €22 million in cash and a further €7.1 million in Visa Inc. preferred stock.
The total consideration will be reflected in the bank’s financial statements for the financial year ending September 30. BOV will be retaining the cash consideration within its reserves to strengthen its Core Tier 1 regulatory capital.
A similar announcement was issued today by HSBC. In its statement, the bank said that it received a cash consideration of €7.6 million (to be recognised as a one-off gain in the 2016 financial statements) and convertible preference shares, together with a deferred cash payment expected to be paid in 2019, amounting to circa €1.4 million. The equity ended the day with a gain of 0.9 per cent at the €1.61,5 level of thin volumes.
Very low trading activity also took place in all the other positive performing equities. MaltaPost recaptured the €2 level (+11.1 per cent) whilst GO gained 0.2 per cent to the €2.90,5 level. On Tuesday, the directors of GO expressed an overall positive opinion on the effect of the implementation of the voluntary bid on GO given that Tunisie Télécom is expected to continue to support GO’s prevailing strategy which should be enhanced with the synergies to be created with Tunisie Télécom.
International Hotel Investments climbed 1.5 per cent to a fresh 12-week high of 67c. Shareholders as at June 27 will be entitled to a three for 100 bonus share.
Meanwhile, a single deal of just 1,000 shares pulled the equity of Lombard Bank back to the €2 level (-1 per cent). This morning, Lombard announced that its board of directors is scheduled to meet on August 25 to consider and approve the interim financial statements covering the six months ending June 30.
Mapfre Middlesea retreated by 0.5 per cent to a six-month low of €2.19 on shallow volumes.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index continued to gain ground as it trended higher for the fourth consecutive day to reach a fresh near two-week high of 1,153.612 points (+0.13 per cent).
The highlight of the day was the jump in the yield of the benchmark 10-year German Bund which moved from an intra-day low of 0.04 per cent to an intra-day three-week high of 0.116 per cent.
This surge was due to growing expectations that the “Remain” camp will secure a victory over the “Leave” camp, thus retaining UK’s membership within the EU.
On the other hand, the 10-year yields of the Italian and Spanish government bonds retreated to near two-week lows.
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