Continued demand for shares of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc helped the equity maintain its recent gains.

The share price of Farsons advanced by 6.5 per cent since last week's publication of a strong set of financial results for the year ended January 31.

This morning, all outstanding offers at the €1.80 level amounting to just under 11,000 shares were taken up.

The equity will continue to trade with the entitlement to the final net dividend of €0.05,33 until close of trading on May 19.

The only positive performer of the day was HSBC Bank Malta plc whose share price added 1.4 per cent to regain the €2.96 level.

The gain in the share price of HSBC helped the MSE Share Index add a further 0.3 per cent to 3,343.101 points.

Last week, the equity drifted back towards €2.91 but with lower levels of supply below the €3 level, the fresh demand that entered the market today forced the share price up to €2.96.

Meanwhile, also in the banking sector, the share price of Bank of Valletta plc held on to €2.89,5.

BOV is due to publish its March 2011 interim results on Friday.

Among the losers of the day, Malta International Airport plc traded minimally below the €1.70 level on a single trade of 7,000 shares while Middlesea Insurance plc gave back most of its recent gains as this equity dropped 3.7 per cent to €0.85,7 on increased volumes totalling 17,058 shares.

Elsewhere, GO plc and RS2 Software plc closed the day unchanged.

The share price of the telecoms operator traded again at its all-time closing low of €1.40 with a further 13,936 shares changing hands at this level.

The equity of the IT company continued to trade at €0.51,9 with a total of 25,500 shares passing through the market this morning.

Yesterday afternoon, RS2 announced an extension to its cut-off date and the equity will now be trading with the entitlement to the net dividend of €0.03,2 per share until May 10.

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