A €100 million Malta Government Stock issue which took place in the past three days was over-subscribed by the general public.

As a result, for the first time in a long number of years, no tenders will be accepted by financial institutions as the full balance of €100 million will be taken up by the public.

The Treasury has not yet disclosed the exact amount received by close of subscriptions yesterday afternoon and the allocation policy to be adopted.

Meanwhile on the secondary market, the Central Bank of Malta raised its MGS bid prices as the benchmark Eurozone yield fell back on concerns over the viability of Ireland’s sovereign debt resurfaced.

On the local equity market, Bank of Valletta plc failed to hold on to its intra-day high of €3.649 as it closed at the €3.62 level representing a 0.3% decline from the previous close. Activity in BOV remained encouraging with over 20,000 shares changing hands today. Meanwhile HSBC Bank Malta plc marginally recovered to regain the €2.89 level on volumes of just under 11,000 shares.

On the news front, this morning Medserv plc issued its Interim Directors’ Statement explaining that due to postponement of offshore work caused by political and economic factors as well as the Gulf of Mexico incident, the Group experienced a lean ten months. However Medserv claimed that its order book has increased substantially in the last two months of the current year and this is likely to continue into 2011.

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