Various equities traded during this morning's trading session with activity rising to a value of €416,120 today with the MSE Share Index retreating by 0.2% to 3,058.953 points.
The downturn in the local equity benchmark was mainly due to the 1% drop in the share price of Bank of Valletta plc to €2.07 on volumes of just over 36,400 shares.
Shortly after the close of today's trading session, BOV announced that its chairman Roderick Chalmers will resign from his post due to personal reasons following the loss of his son.
Four other equities closed in negative territory today with Midi plc sliding 4.3% to a new all-time low of 33c5 on high volumes of 500,000 shares.
Meanwhile only 1,200 shares were transacted in Lombard Bank Malta plc as the equity plunged 2.2% to a fresh 90-month low of €2.20. Similarly, low volumes were traded in Middlesea Insurance plc with 1,672 shares changing hands at the 63c level representing a 2.3% drop from the previous closing price.
On the IT front, Crimsonwing plc initially plunged 33.3% to the 20c level before recovering to close at the 28c level which represents a 6.7% drop from the previous close.
On the other hand, RS2 Software plc held on to the 50c level across four trades totalling 39,035 shares.
The declines across these various equities offset the positive performances registered by Malta International Airport plc and Go plc.
MIA's share price rose 1.1% to a new 14-month high of €1.77 on volumes of 2,950 shares.
GO's shares continued to climb higher as the equity touched a new nine-month high of €1.17 before easing back to the €1.15 level representing a 4.6% rise from the previous close.
Moreover, the equity of the quad-play telecom operator ended the week as the best performer with an 18.6% increase and now tops the 2012 rankings with year-to-date rise of 17.4%.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index was practically unchanged at 984.390 points as Eurozone yields remained around the 1.50% level.
Markets now await this weekend's Greek general election results to gauge whether Greece will remain in the Eurozone or not.
In this respect, central banks from major economies have agreed to coordinated actions to provide liquidity should the Greek election results cause further turmoil in financial markets.
Yesterday afternoon, the treasury published the prices of the three new Malta Government Stocks, as follows:
(i) 3.75% MGS 2017 (IV) at 102%;
(ii) 4.3% MGS 2022 (II) FI at 100.25% and
(iii) 5.1% MGS 2029 (I) at 101%.
Subscriptions for these stocks open next Monday. Application forms available at http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2012/pricing-of-new-stocks-mgs07/ .
www.rizzofarrugia.com