This morning's trading session on the Stock Exchange was once again dominated by the trading activity in government stocks.

Deals amounted to €2.35 million (nominal) despite a strong correction in prices following the spike during the previous two sessions.

European markets settled down slightly after yesterday's widespread panic as the general consensus amongst European finance ministers is that although Italy has a high level of debt, its situation is still under control and nowhere near as bad as Portugal, Ireland and Greece.

As a result, Eurozone yields recovered from yesterday's eight-month low of 2.51 per cent to reach the 2.71 per cent level.

Nonetheless, European financial markets are still fragile. In fact, Ireland today became the third country, after Greece and Portugal, to have its credit rating cut to junk status.

Back to the local market, high volumes again traded in the 5.25 per cent MGS 2030 (I) reaching over €1.15 million despite a reduction in the Central Bank's bid price from yesterday's closing price of 103.12 per cent to 102.51 per cent.

Significant rise in trading activity was also registered in the 3.75 per cent MGS 2015 (VI) as €1 million (nominal) changed hands at the Central Bank's bid price of 101.24 per cent.

On the equity market, Bank of Valletta plc eased 0.7 per cent lower to €2.68 on very low volumes of 422 shares, despite a statement by the Finance Minister that the BOV Group comfortably passed the EU-wide bank stress tests, which will be published later on this week.

Meanwhile, HSBC Bank Malta plc rose by one per cent to regain the €2.95 level on volumes of 4,359 shares. Also in the financial sector, FIMBank plc eased 0.3 per cent lower to its multi-year low of US$0.77 across 8,237 shares.

GO plc again recovered from an intra-day low of €1.34 to close at €1.36 but still representing a 1.5 per cent drop from the previous close.

Three trades totalling 3,200 shares changed hands today.

A further 45,300 RS2 Software plc shares traded at the 53c level with lowest offers placed at the 54c level.

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