The equities of Bank of Valletta plc and HSBC Bank Malta plc closed in opposite directions during this morning’s session amid sustained high volumes.
BOV’s share price touched a new six-year high of €2.50 (equivalent to €2.75 pre-bonus) before marginally easing to a close of €2.49 which still represents a 1.6 per cent increase over the previous closing price. Volumes remained healthy with over 74,500 shares of BOV changing hands during today’s session.
Meanwhile, the share price of HSBC slipped by two per cent to the €2.52 level across 19 deals totalling 60,700 shares. The bank is scheduled to publish its 2013 full-year results on February 24.
Amongst the large cap equities, GO plc ended this morning’s session minimally higher at €1.85 after recovering from an intra-day low of €1.80 across five deals totalling 14,172 shares.
Meanwhile, lower volumes were registered across the other eight active equities. In the financial services sector, the share price of Middlesea Insurance plc surpassed the 92c level for the first time since August 2011 with a 0.3 per cent increase to the 92c3 level across 4,220 shares.
Lombard Bank Malta plc held on to yesterday’s gains and closed unchanged at the €1.90 level on volumes of 9,638 shares.
On the other hand, the equity of FIMBank plc eased 0.5 per cent lower to US95c5 on volumes of 3,400 shares. Yesterday marked the closing of the voluntary bid by Burgan Bank and United Gulf Bank and the results are expected to be published in the coming days.
The equity of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc also experienced low volumes with a single trade of 2,491 shares executed at the €2.90 level representing a 0.4 per cent increase over the previous close. Similarly, International Hotel Investments plc edged 2.4 pre cent lower to 89c8 on a small trade of 544 shares.
There were marginal changes in the equities of Malta International Airport plc, RS2 Software plc and 6pm Holdings plc on shallow activity.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index eased minimally lower to 1,026.905 points as Eurozone yields marginally rebounded possibly on some profit-taking following the recent slide in benchmark yields.
Nonetheless, the region’s yields slid back to the 1.745 per cent level by this afternoon reflecting the unexpected drop in German economic sentiment as well as the $42 billion injection into the Chinese economy by the Bank of China.
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