The MSE Share Index climbed to its highest level in the last seven trading sessions as it rebounded by 0.40 per cent to 4,441.312 points. The positive performance of the Index was mainly as a result of the uplift in the share price of GO. Meanwhile, BOV and Plaza Centres also registered gains today, outstripping the 2.9 per cent decline in the share price of Medserv plc which fell to its five-month low of €1.65 across 20,450 shares.
Last Thursday Medserv confirmed that it continues to operate its base in Portugal and provide related services to ENI despite the fact that ENI has been prevented from carrying out exploration activities as planned.
GO plc was the best performing equity today as it advanced by 4.0 per cent to a three-month high of €3.09 albeit on trivial volumes. Last week, GO replicated a press release issued by Tunisie Telecom announcing that all the conditions in respect of the voluntary bid made by TT ML Limited to acquire shares in GO have now been satisfied.
Bank of Valletta plc gained 0.7 per cent to €2.24 (its highest level in the past seven weeks) across 3,202 shares. Last Thursday, BOV announced that it acquired the 40 per cent shareholding that Insight Investment Management Limited held in Valletta Fund Management Limited (VFM) for a total consideration of €5 million. As a result, BOV is now the sole shareholder of VFM.
Plaza Centres plc inched 2.7 per cent higher to a new all-time high of €1.13 across 2,300 shares.
Tomorrow Plaza is expected to publish its Prospectus with respect to its €8.5 million 3.9 per cent unsecured bond issue redeemable in 2026. The Company had announced that it had received regulatory approval for this new fundraising exercise. The bonds are expected to be listed on 19 September 2016.
Within the same segment, MIDI plc closed flat at the €0.365 level across 13,700 shares. The Company is due to publish its interim results on 31 August.
A single deal of just 519 shares left the equity of Malta International Airport plc unchanged at the €4.25 level. Today, the equity started to trade without the entitlement to the recently declared gross interim dividend of €0.0462 per share. This dividend will be paid on 16 September.
Likewise, RS2 Software plc held on to the €1.85 level on volumes totalling 22,000 shares while Simonds Farsons Cisk plc maintained the €6.35 on shallow volumes.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index posted its fourth consecutive daily gain as it advanced by a further 0.16 per cent to a fresh sixteen-month high of 1,168.271 points. Similar to yesterday, the indicative bid prices of the Central Bank of Malta for all Malta Government Stocks having maturities of eight years and over, except for the 3.00 per cent 2040 I issue (which today surpassed the 116 per cent level for the first time since early May 2015), reached new record highs again today.
Trading in the newly issued 2.4 per cent MGS 2041 (I) r commenced today with the price opening at an intra-day low of 105.00 per cent and closed at a high of 105.75 per cent – up 400 basis points from the 101.75 per cent issue price. The indicative CBM bid price for this particular stock stood at 104.25 per cent. On the economic front, recent data showed mixed signals. On the one hand, German service sector activity grew at its slowest pace in fifteen months in August whilst French private sector activity grew at the fastest pace in ten months.
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