The share index extended the negative performance of the past two trading sessions as it slipped by a further 0.1 per cent to a one-week low of 4,415.247 points.
Trading activity was spread across eight equities, with only GO registering a gain whilst Medserv, Malita and IHI all trended lower. Meanwhile, four other shares closed the day flat.
After recently recovering from its 2016 low of €1.50 to the €1.58,5 level, the equity of Medserv posted its first decline in the last eight trading sessions as it dropped by 3.1 per cent back to the €1.55 level across 63,000 shares.
A single deal of 19,400 shares pulled the share price of Malita Investments 1.1 per cent lower to the 86c level.
The other negative performing equity today was International Hotel Investments which retreated by 0.8 per cent to the 63c5 level on low volumes totalling 8,635 shares.
On Tuesday, IHI announced that it has acquired the remaining 80 per cent shareholding in QPM Limited. As a result, QPM is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of IHI.
The board of IHI expressed its confidence that the full ownership of QPM will place IHI in a stronger position to achieve its strategic objective to develop and operate properties worldwide.
In contrast, GO advanced 0.6 per cent to regain the €3.14 level across 2,865 shares.
Also among the large companies, BOV, HSBC, RS2 and MIA all finished the day unchanged. Bank of Valletta (8,224 shares) and HSBC (1,606 shares) maintained the €2.25 and €1.60 levels respectively.
RS2 Software managed to rebound from an intra-day low of €1.61,5 (-1.5 per cent) to close unchanged at the €1.64 level. A total of 9,825 shares changed hands today.
Meanwhile, Malta International Airport also closed flat at the €4.20,5 level on trivial volumes.
Last week, MIA published the August traffic results revealing a 2.3 per cent increase in passenger movements over August 2015.
During the first eight months of 2016, MIA registered a 7.7 per cent increase in passenger movements to 3.36 million when compared to the same period last year.
In July, MIA had revised upwards its passenger growth forecast for 2016 to +7.5 per cent to 4.97 million passengers compared to the previous 2016 forecast of 4.73 million (+2.4 per cent) revealed in January.
Yesterday evening, MIDI issued an announcement referring to the directors’ commentary in the interim financial statements dated August 31, and to an article appearing in the newspaper ‘MaltaToday’ on September 12.
MIDI stated that while it continued to be in discussions with third parties which had previously expressed an interest in the Manoel Island project, the group had not placed ‘a price tag on Manoel Island’. In this respect, MIDI would make further announcements as and when necessary. The equity remained inactive today.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index rebounded by a minimal 0.02 per cent to 1,164.901 points despite the marginal uptick in euro zone yields. In fact, the 10-year benchmark German bund touched the 0.056 per cent level this morning (from 0.046 per cent yesterday) before easing back to 0.03 per cent later in the day.
Likewise, the 10-year yields of Italy and Spain edged minimally higher to 1.343 per cent and 1.078 per cent respectively.
On the economic front, fresh inflationary data showed that consumer prices in the euro area went up 0.2 per cent year-on-year in August, the same as in July.
Although figures came in line with preliminary estimates, they remained well below the European Central Bank’s target of an inflation rate of close to but lower than two per cent.
In the meantime, this morning the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England unanimously decided to keep interest rates in the UK unchanged at a record low of 0.25 per cent, in line with market forecasts, but signalled another rate cut to just above zero later this year.
Furthermore, the MPC also voted to leave its asset purchase program unchanged. The MPC also noted that a number of near-term indicators of economic activity had been somewhat stronger than expected and now expects “less of a slowing in UK GDP growth in the second half of 2016”.
Trading activity in the recently issued 2.4% MGS 2041 (I) r continued to be particularly strong as €1.9 million (nominal) changed hands today, leaving the price of this stock at 107.6 per cent after touching an intra-day high of 107.75 per cent - which is significantly higher than today’s CBM bid price of 105.27 per cent.
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