The last trading week of November saw the index soar to new highs for the year. Following four consecutive positive trading sessions, the index closed the Thursday session beyond the 3,400 mark, a level not surpassed since late October 2008.
Understandably Friday saw the index retreat some of its gains, following a very difficult session in the international equity markets the previous day. This notwithstanding, the index managed to close the week at 3,351.185 or 1.75% higher than the previous week, with no losers among the equities traded.
Trading focus was spread between a number of equities rather than just the usual banking sector. Volume indeed was strong again with slightly more than 360,000 shares being exchanged in 220 deals. Thirteen equities saw their shares changing hands, nine of which recorded increases in their prices while the remaining four kept their prices as per the previous week.
Bank of Valletta plc (BoV) shares spent the week trading in mixed fashion, as focus shifted away from this stock, towards its main competitor and other equities. Although the share price reached a new high of €3.834 on Thursday, selling pressure on Friday reversed any upward move hence closing the week unchanged at €3.80. Traded volume continued to drop with only 25,417 shares being traded over 35 deals, a far cry from volume levels seen earlier in the month.
In complete contrast to its main competitor, HSBC Bank Malta plc shares were heavily traded particularly towards the last two sessions. The share price saw some large swings towards the final days of trading backed by heavy volume.
The equity price climbed to a peak of €3.25 yet closed sharply lower at €3.06 clearly troubled on fears over the fallout from Dubai debt problems which emerged the day before. Such fears impacted the financial sector heavily at least on Thursday as investors assessed the ripple effect of a possible default particularly on international banks. Trading volume in this equity was high and totalled nearly 76,000 shares over 70 deals.
One of the best performing equities this week was Go plc, which saw its share price climb steadily for the eight weeks in a row, escalating towards €1.945.
The price was lowered only slightly, to close at €1.94, a weekly improvement of 6.6%. This equity has consolidated its position among the top three gainers for the year having now increased by nearly 11% since the start of January.
Volume totalled slightly more than 74,000 shares changing hands in 50 deals.
Middlesea Insurance plc saw its shares being heavily traded throughout the week with slightly more than 88,000 shares dealt in 26 deals spread throughout the week. The share price fluctuated between €0.65 and €0.70 at which it closed.
Medserv plc climbed to fresh highs for the week following 42,354 shares traded over seven deals. The mid-week session saw the price climb to €4.10, hence improving just over 4% for the week, and closing in positive territory for the year.
Both Malta International Airport plc and International Hotels Investments plc saw gains slightly higher than 2% this week with the former closing at €2.399 while the latter climbed to €0.82.
Four trades in Fimbank plc shares pushed the price upwards by $0.01 to close at $1.11. Notwithstanding this slight gain, this equity is still losing nearly 25% year to date.
Minor volume in both GlobalCapital plc and Maltapost plc resulted in share price increase of 13.9% for the former and 2.42% for the latter. These gains helped moderate somewhat the large losses experienced since the start of the current year for both these equities.
Two trades amounting to 1,000 shares in Island Hotels Group raised the share price of this equity to a new high of €1.02, an improvement of nearly 1% for the week.
Share prices of both Lombard Bank plc and Datatrak Holdings plc remained unchanged following minor trading.
This week long term Benchmark German Government Bond (Bunds) yields edged significantly lower following the downturn in equity markets, particularly on Thursday.
Local government bonds mirrored this downward move in yields, with decent gains for most of the stocks traded this week. Long term MGSs benefited most from this fall in yields.
Trading was particularly active for the 5% MGS 2021 which saw an appreciation of 1.03% in its trading price to close at €104.74.
Trading in local Corporate bonds totalled nearly €490,000 in value, with trading concentrated mostly in the 4.6% HSBC Bank Malta plc bond maturing in 2017, the price of which rose to €102. Other local corporate bonds traded saw flat to mixed price movements. Trading in the Treasury Bills market amounted to €9.4 million.
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.