The share price of Bank of Valletta plc closed lower for the sixth consecutive session with a further 0.9 per cent drop to a fresh six-month low of €2.18 across 30 deals totalling just over 38,000 shares. Similarly, HSBC Bank Malta plc eased 0.4 per cent to the €2.40 level on low volumes of 6,450 shares.
The worst performer of the day was International Hotel Investments plc as its equity slumped 8.5 per cent lower to 76c8 for the first time in almost two months. Just over 3,100 shares changed hands today as shareholders await further developments with respect to the sale of the 12 luxury apartments in London as well as other non-core assets.
The only other negative performing equity was Malta International Airport plc with a 0.4 per cent drop back to the €2.26 level on volumes of 5,000 shares.
On the other hand, the share price of MaltaPost plc jumped 4.5 per cent to regain its all-time high of €1.15 amid substantial volumes of 132,268 shares. The only other positive performing equity was Simonds Farsons Cisk plc with a single trade of 1,500 shares being executed at the equity’s all-time high of €3 representing a 0.3 per cent increase over the previous closing price.
Meanwhile, Medserv plc held on to the €1.30 level on high volumes of 221,250 shares. In the last two weeks, Medserv announced three contracts relating to logistical and support services to different exploratory and production well projects.
One of the contracts is with ENI (Cyprus) Ltd and will be serviced out of the group’s base in Cyprus during the next three years with an option to extend for a further two years.
The other two contracts, relating to two separate international oil companies, will be serviced from the Malta base which is now also supported by an additional 30,000 square metres of land in Hal Far. The term of these two contracts is for two years with an option to extend by a further two years.
Significantly lower volumes were seen in the three other active equities. GO plc again recovered from an intra-day low of €2 to end the session unchanged at the €2.05 level across 6,500 shares.
FIMBank plc also maintained the 84c2US level on just 2,383 shares and RS2 Software plc held on to its all-time high of €2.43 on a single trade of 500 shares.
Overall, the MSE Share Index registered the second largest daily decline this year with a 1.6 per cent fall to yet another six-month low of 3,432.619 points.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index inched marginally higher to 1,027.181 points as Eurozone yields eased lower to 1.574 per cent in view of the tension between Ukraine and Russia.
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