The Malta Stock Exchange index gained a slight 0.27% last week, but did so in a haphazard manner. It initially rose to a year high, then succumbed to selling pressure intra-week, but closed the week back in positive territory. The MSE index is now up nearly 7% year-to-date.
Trading was very spread out - away from the usual concentration in the two major banks. Just over 242,000 shares in 17 equities were traded over 162 deals. Eleven equities reaped encouraging gains, two remained unchanged, while four were slightly down.
Bank of Valletta plc's share price closed the week unchanged at €3.78, although it fluctuated intra-week as 34,000 shares changed hands across 36 deals. BoV's share price has largely been static since November.
The bank's AGM on Wednesday approved the company's financial accounts for the year ended September 30, agreed to the payment last Thursday of a gross final dividend of €0.215 per share, and reappointed the auditors. The bank announced that a bonus issue of 40,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares of a nominal value of €1 per share, representing one bonus share for every four shares held, will be allocated to registered BoV shareholders as of January 15.
HSBC Bank Malta plc's share price retreated slightly by 0.62% to end the week at €3.23, snapping the sharp upturn of recent weeks. A rather low total of 28,390 HSBC shares were exchanged in 25 deals, probably indicating that the upward momentum has lost steam and an equilibrium price has been reached.
By contrast, Go plc's share price soared 2.71% last week, reaching €2.085, its highest this year, backed by the exchange of 30,640 shares. Go has now climbed a hefty 19% so far this year and is close to becoming 2009's second-best performer.
For the first time since March, Middlesea Insurance plc (MSI) was best performer of the week as hefty volume boosted the share price by an exceptional 12.9% to close at €0.711. However, at such a low price, volatility remains high as any slight price movement results in large percentage gains or losses.
On Wednesday, MSI announced details of its rights issue. Major shareholders BoV, Mapfre Internacional SA and Munich Re took up 62.5% of the total amount of shares issued. BoV and Mapfre subscribed for the remaining 37.5%. A further 1,149 shareholders took up their entitlement and subscribed for a total of 1,736,296 shares.
The major MSI shareholders have therefore significantly upped their shareholding from 62.5% to 81.5%, with BoV and Mapfre each owning 30.8% of MSI and Munich Re owning 19.9%. Other shareholders own 18.5%. The 67,000,000 new ordinary shares of a nominal value of €0.60 are expected to be issued, allotted and admitted to listing by December 28.
There was unusually heavy trading in Maltapost plc, with nearly 32,500 shares changing hands in five deals. The equity closed the week just under 6% up at €0.69, making it the week's second-best performer. Although it has risen 15% since November, Maltapost is still heavily underperforming, having shed 15.65% of its value on a year-to-date basis.
Lombard Bank plc continued gaining strength last week, albeit on lower volume than the previous week, with its share price climbing 2.8% to close at €2.95, a mere €0.05 lower than the price in the first week of January. This equity has gained just over 21% from its March lows, which were nearly retested in October.
International Hotels Investments plc shares once again failed to hold on to their previous week's gain, losing 2.44% to retracing back to €0.80. Volume was low, with trading taking place only in Thursday's session.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc (SFC), Plaza Centres plc, Fimbank plc, Crimsonwing plc and Global Capital plc made decent weekly gains of around 5%, albeit on low trading volume. After last week's improvement, SFC's share price is now in slightly positive territory for the year.
Datatrak plc and Medserv plc added a further 2.86% and 2.4% respectively last week. The latter equity's price has risen over 5% during the past year.
On the other hand, Malta International Airport plc and RS2 Software plc lost value last week by 1.6% and 7.2% respectively, both on low volume.
A single trade in Island Hotels Group Holdings in Thursday's session left its share price unchanged at €1.02.
There was high volatility in the government stock markets last week, particularly in Europe, with global investors concerned over sovereign credit ratings.
Anxiety in overall markets is always a positive for government stock prices - given the fall in yields, particularly long-term ones.
Similarly, local long-term government bonds rose again last week, especially those maturing beyond 2020. Just over €5.6 million worth of Malta Government Stocks were traded last week, but most deals concentrated on the 2012 MGS.
A total of €844,000 worth of corporate bonds were traded, with most of their prices remaining unchanged. However, the price of the Mizzi Organisation Finance 6.2% bond soared by 2.56% while the 7% GAP 2013 bond retraced back to €90.50.
Trading in the Treasury Bills market amounted to just over €909,000.
This article, which was compiled by Jesmond Mizzi, managing director of Jesmond Mizzi Financial Services Ltd (JMFS), does not intend to give investment advice and the contents therein should not be construed as such. JMFS is licensed to conduct investment services by the MFSA. The directors or related parties, including the company, and their clients are likely to have an interest in securities mentioned in this article.
For further information contact JMFS at 67/3, South Street, Valletta, Tel: 2122 4410 or e-mail jmizzi@jmfs.net.