During this morning’s session, the share index moved back into positive territory with a 0.3 per cent increase to 4,421.202 points as BOV, HSBC, GO, MIA and Medserv rebounded.

After reaching a seven-week high during yesterday’s session, trading activity slowed down by 20.9 per cent to €0.27 million across local equities.

In the banking sector, Bank of Valletta rebounded by 1.4 per cent to recapture the €2.25 level across two deals totalling 4,400 shares.

Similarly, HSBC partially reversed some of the recent declines with a 0.7 per cent uplift to recapture the €1.56 level albeit on a single trade of 1,500 shares. The bank is scheduled to pay the recently declared gross interim dividend of 7c1 per share (net: 4c62) on September 9.

The equity of Malta International Airport edged 0.2 per cent higher to €4.24 on shallow volumes of 3,670 shares.

Likewise, Medserv rebounded by three per cent to regain the €1.54,5 level on a single trade of 7,000 shares. Last Friday, Medserv published its 2016 interim results revealing a substantial drop in pre-tax profits to €0.28 million on the back of a slowdown in Cyprus and a delay in works in Portugal among other factors.

GO trended higher for the second consecutive session as the equity climbed a further 0.8% to regain the €3.10 level across 12,000 shares.

On the other hand, FIMBank closed in negative territory for the second successive session with a decline of a further 2.7 per cent to a fresh 11-week low of 90cUS across seven deals totalling 76,246 shares.

MIDI shed 4.1 per cent to drop back to the 35s level on a trade of 4,000 shares. The interim financial statements will be published tomorrow.

Meanwhile, RS2 Software held on to the €1.85 level for the third successive session with a further 47,162 shares changing hands today.

Similarly, the equity of Malta Properties Company plc ended the session unchanged at the 53c5 level on volumes of 76,361 shares.

On the bond market, the RF MGS Index jumped 0.2 per ce nt to a four-month high of 1,169.146 points as the benchmark 10-year German Bund yield slumped back to -0.075 per cent this morning following data showing a 0.3 per centE drop in consumer prices meaning that Germany’s economy was in deflation.

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