The MSE Share Index performed positively for the first time this week as it advanced by 0.66% from its five-week low of yesterday to 4,436.953 points. The rebound took place as the share prices of four of the largest companies by market capitalisation – MIA, HSBC, RS2 and BOV – all registered gains today. Meanwhile, only Tigne’ Mall and Malta Properties finished lower whilst another three shares closed unchanged. The total value of equities traded dropped to a four-day low of €0.12 million today.
Malta International Airport plc continued to recover part of the losses it suffered last Monday as it advanced by a further 1.7% today to the €4.19 level across 7,000 shares.
Last Friday, MIA published its September traffic results revealing a 5.8% increase in passenger movements to an all-time high of 531,962 passengers. Between January and September 2016, MIA registered a 7.5% increase in passenger movements to 3.89 million when compared to the same period last year on the back of a 5.3% increase in seat capacity and a 1.7 percentage point increase in the seat load factor to 83.4%.
In July, MIA had revised upwards its passenger growth forecast for 2016 to +7.5% to 4.97 million passengers compared to the previous 2016 forecast of 4.73 million (+2.4%) revealed in January 2016.
RS2 Software plc finished higher for the first time in the last nine trading sessions as it went up by 1.3% to the €1.59 level after touching an intra-day low of €1.56 (-0.6%). A total of 7,460 shares change hands today.
In the retail banking sector, both HSBC Bank Malta plc and Bank of Valletta plc posted gains today. HSBC recaptured its six-month high of €1.67 (+1.4%) on 11,530 shares. Meanwhile, twelve deals totalling 16,988 shares pushed BOV 1.1% higher to the €2.289 level. BOV’s financial statements as at 30 September 2016 will be published by the end of October.
Also among the large companies, a single deal of just 1,100 shares left GO plc unchanged at €3.15.
Light volumes were also traded in Mapfre Middlesea plc and Malita Investments plc. Both equities closed flat at €2.07 and €0.858 respectively.
Malta Properties Company plc continued to retract from last week’s near six-month high of €0.60 as it dropped by a further 0.5% to €0.566 on trivial volumes.
Tigne’ Mall plc erased yesterday’s gains as it moved back to the €1.08 level (-0.1%) across 8,518 shares.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index extended the gains registered yesterday as it advanced by a further 0.07% to a five-day high of 1,168.366 points. Whilst the 10-year benchmark German Bund yield and that of the corresponding Italian government retracted to 0.038% (from 0.044%) and 1.383% (from 1.400%) respectively, the 10-year yield of the Spanish government advanced to 1.113%. Meanwhile, the international financial media reported that the European Central Bank (ECB) may discuss technical changes to its asset-buying scheme next week but a decision could be deferred until December when the bank will also decide whether to extend the scheme beyond March.
The reports said that compromise proposals could include relaxing a rule forcing the ECB to buy debt in proportion to the size of each euro zone economy. Other proposals may include buying a limited amount of bonds yielding less than the deposit rate and buying a bigger share of any individual bond issue. On the economic front, inflation in Germany showed signs of a pick-up in September, rising to 0.7% - its best level since May 2015.
This afternoon, the Treasury issued the prices and yields for the new Malta Government Stocks as follows: the 1.5% MGS 2022 (IV) F.I. has been priced at 107.25% (yield to maturity of 0.223% per annum) and the 2.1% MGS 2039 (I) has been priced at 102.50% (yield to maturity of 1.964% per annum).
The newly issued 5.0% Dizz Finance plc 2026 was admitted to listing today. Trading is expected to commence tomorrow.
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