The share index moved marginally higher during this morning’s session to 4,119.603 points largely due to the rebound in the share prices of Malta International Airport and Bank of Valletta.
The equity of Malta International Airport extended its recent rebound with a further 0.6 per cent uplift during today’s session to regain the €3.50 level for the first time in 12 weeks on volumes of 14,801 shares.
The airport operator is shortly expected to issue its June traffic results and updated passenger forecasts for this year. Meanwhile, the interim financial statements will be published on July 29.
Similarly, Bank of Valletta shares edged slightly higher today, representing the first uptick in the last four sessions, with a 0.3 per cent increase, effectively reversing yesterday’s decline to recapture the €2.30 level across 15 deals totalling 27,100 shares.
Last Monday, BOV issued its interim directors’ statement informing the market that its financial performance since April 1 was in line with expectations.
BOV reported strong growth in home loans while customer deposits continued to grow especially in the short-term category resulting in a positive impact on the net interest margin of the bank.
BOV also indicated that commissions earned on the sale of financial products continued to grow while other income generated from foreign exchange transactions and investment portfolio gains improved.
Meanwhile, costs were higher than those of previous years and impairment charges on specific accounts increased reflecting the deteriorating quality of such accounts.
On the other hand, RS2 Software shares eased minimally back to the €2.22 level compared to yesterday’s closing price of €2.22,5 on shallow volumes of 4,920 shares.
Likewise, the equity of Mapfre Middlesea drifted into negative territory with a minimal decline to €1.67 on just 51 shares.
Meanwhile, no changes in the other six active equities were recorded. Among the large cap equities, HSBC closed unchanged at the €1.78 level after failing to hold on to an intra-day high of €1.80 across a total of 10,400 shares. The bank is scheduled to publish its interim results on August 3.
GO also ended this morning’s session unchanged at the €3.58 level on volumes of 29,371 shares. The telecoms quad-play operator is scheduled to hold an extraordinary general meeting on July 22 in connection with the proposed property spin-off.
Similarly, 2,420 shares of International Hotel Investments traded unchanged at 85c across a single trade. IHI recently announced that holders of an aggregate of 94.28 per cent of the shares in Island Hotels Group Holdings have submitted their acceptance form in connection with the offer made by IHI to acquire the entire issued share capital of IHG. The remaining shareholders of IHG have until July 31 to respond to the offer.
There were no changes were in the share prices of Medserv and Malita Investments at €2.35,5 and 90c, respectively.
The only other active equity during this morning’s session was 6pm Holdings with 1,778 shares changing hands at the 76p level representing no change from the previous closing price.
Earlier this week, the IT Group published a prospectus dated July 8 in connection with a new €13 million bond issue. The 6pm bonds are reserved for shareholders as at the close of trading on June 4.
On the secondary market for local bonds, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index jumped 0.3 per cent higher to 1,118.748 points as the peripheral eurozone yields continued to trend lower after the Greek parliament yesterday evening approved the measures requested by international creditors for a new debt deal.
www.rizzofarrugia.com