The share price of International Hotel Investments plc continued to trade higher and advanced by 4.6 per cent this morning to close the day at a new 2013 high of 88c9.

Yesterday afternoon the company issued its interim directors statement confirming that it is negotiating the sale of the 12 residences in London.

IHI also reported improved performances at the hotels in Budapest and London with the latter registering a €2 million improvement over the same period in 2012.

The performance of the hotels in Malta and Portugal were unchanged over Q1 2012 while the property in Tripoli is still being impacted by higher costs being in anticipation of a full recovery of the Libyan economy.

HSBC Bank Malta plc also edged minimally higher to regain the €2.61 level on continued low volumes totalling 10,000 shares.

The gains registered in IHI and HSBC helped the MSE Share Index edge 0.6 per cent higher to 3,353.049 points.

Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta plc closed 1.1 per cent lower at €2.23,5 after recovering from an intra-day low of €2.20. A total of 24,886 shares traded today.

As from today, the equity traded without the entitlement to the interim gross dividend of 6c per share (3c9 per share after tax). The interim dividend will now be paid on May 24.

Volumes in FIMBank plc increased to 51,000 shares today with the share price closing minimally higher at US$1.01,1 after briefly touching a level of US$1.02.

The only other active equity was Malita Investments plc which recovered from recent losses and closed the day at 52c9 on volumes of 10,000 shares.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index partially recovered from yesterday’s decline and edged minimally higher to 1,023.551 points.

The market now awaits the announcement of the details of the new Malta Government Stock issues expected this month.

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