During this morning's trading session, fresh demand for the shares of International Hotel Investments plc helped the equity recover some of its recent losses as it advanced by 14.3 per cent to the €0.80 level.
Almost 29,000 shares changed hands today.
The renewed demand for IHI shares possibly follows the interview with the chairman Alfred Pisani published today in the local media.
IHI's chairman spoke about the recent opening of the London Hotel and described this as a trophy asset for the IHI Group "as it will have a spin-off effect on all our other Corinthia hotels".
In the interview, the chairman also indicated that IHI is seeking further property acquisitions in Paris and Rome.
Mr Pisani also reiterated the group's intention to raise further equity and obtain a secondary listing by the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.
IHI was not the only positive performer of the day with the share prices of HSBC Bank Malta plc, Bank of Valletta plc and GO plc also moving higher. The gains in these four companies helped the MSE Share Index to advance by 2.5 per cent to 3,412.637 points, representing a five-week high.
The equity of HSBC Bank Malta plc jumped 1.4 per cent to regain the €3 level across five trades totalling 3,700 shares.
Bank of Valletta plc edged 0.4 per cent higher to close at the €2.83 level also on low volumes of 3,230 shares.
The only other active equity, GO plc, inched minimally higher to €1.38,1 after easing from an intra-day high of €1.38,5 on volumes of 3,260 shares.
Despite recovering by 6.2 per cent during the last seven sessions, GO's equity still trails the local equity market with a year-to-date decline of 28.6 per cent.
GO is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting on June 8 and in anticipation of this meeting, the 2010 annual report was distributed to all shareholders.
Shortly after the close of today's trading session, Grand Harbour Marina plc published its interim statement.
GHM reported that during the first quarter of 2011, berthing revenues increased by a further 8.3 per cent to €303,212.
Meanwhile the company also announced that it successfully concluded the sale of one super-yacht berth in March 2011.
However, the size of the berth and the value of the sale was not disclosed.
During the first quarter of 2011, GHM also concluded the acquisition of a 45 per cent stake in the Cesme Marina (Turkey) from its largest shareholder, Camper & Nicholsons Marina Investments Limited.
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