The MSE Equity Price Index partially erased Tuesday's decline as it rebounded by 0.37% to 4,384.794 points on the back of gains in five equities while a further three shares closed the day unchanged.
PG plc added 1.5% to a four-month high of €1.36 on five deals totalling 53,500 shares. By the end of August, the company should be publishing its financial statements covering the financial year ended April 30, 2018.
Following Tuesday's drop of 3.1%, the equity of Bank of Valletta plc advanced by 1.3% to the €1.57 level across 42,588 shares. Last week, the international credit rating agency S&P downgraded its long-term Issuer Default Rating on BOV to “BBB” from “BBB+” and maintained its outlook as “negative”. S&P noted the increased reputational and operational risks for the Maltese banking sector in general, while for BOV it highlighted the risks in relation to the case of the Deiulemar Trust. On the other hand, S&P acclaimed BOV’s resilient profitability and contained credit losses.
Also in the banking sector, FIMBank plc gained 0.9% to the $0.545 level albeit on trivial volumes. The trade finance specialist is due to publish its interim financial results on August 14.
Medserv plc also ended 0.9% higher at the €1.11 level after opening at a low of €1.03 (-6.4%). A total of 22,600 shares changed hands. The oil and gas services company is expected to publish its interim financial statements on August 27.
In the property segment, MIDI plc regained the €0.48 level (+0.4%) on activity of 150,000 shares. The company is yet to announce the date of the publication of its interim financial statements.
Malita Investments plc (30,000 shares) and GO plc (2,950 shares) closed the day unchanged at €0.87 and €3.38 respectively. Both companies are due to publish their respective interim results on Friday August 10.
Malta International Airport plc maintained its all-time high of €5.70 on volumes totalling 4,855 shares. On Wednesday morning, the airport operator published its July traffic results showing a 12.1% increase in passenger movements to a record of 756,356 movements. This was more than 62,000 passenger movements superior to the previous monthly record in August 2017, reflecting robust increases in aircraft movements and seat capacity as well as the highest seat load factor this year of 87.1%. During the first seven months of 2018, MIA welcomed more than 3.82 million passengers, representing an increase of 15.4% over the previous comparable period. Last month, MIA updated its passenger forecast to yet another record of 6.77 million passenger movements (+13% over 2017).
Following the strong gains registered in the previous two days, the RF MGS Index moved slightly lower on Wednesday as it slipped by 0.1% to 1,094.533 points. Movements in eurozone sovereign yields were mixed amid renewed uncertainties relating to the imposition of fresh trade tariffs on goods flowing between the US and China.
Stock markets are volatile and subject to fluctuations which cannot be reasonably foreseen. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.