Plaza Centres plc kicked off the local interim reporting season with this morning’s publication of its half-year results covering the six months ended 30 June 2013. During the period under review, revenue dropped by 7.5% to just over €1 million mainly due to the anticipated lower occupancy in view of the refurbishment programme carried out on the office floors. In fact, average occupancy during the period under review was at 83% compared to 93% in the first six months of 2012. The drop in turnover also reflected in a drop in net profit of 10.5% to €0.38 million. Looking ahead, the Directors explained that the recently refurbished office space which is still vacant is expected to be leased out in the third or fourth quarter of 2013.
Medserv plc is also expected to publish its half-year results later on this afternoon whilst Middlesea Insurance plc will follow on Thursday.
On the secondary market, the MSE Share Index edged a further 0.1% higher today to 3,438.489 points mainly due to the gains in HSBC Bank Malta plc and International Hotel Investments plc. HSBC edged 0.3% higher to regain the €2.749 level on volumes of 3,550 shares with the share price of IHI up 1.1% to €0.90 also on shallow volumes of 2,206 shares.
On the other hand, MIDI plc slipped 2% to its all-time low of €0.24 on volumes of 40,000 shares. Similarly, the share price of Malta International Airport plc was forced 1.5% lower to €2.03 on an insignificant deal of 160 shares.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc also slipped 0.4% lower to €2.75 on low volumes of 1,302 shares. MaltaPost plc also performed negatively with a decline of 0.5% decline on a small deal of 2,000 shares.
Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta plc held on to the €2.27 level across thirteen deals totalling just under 16,000 shares.
Similarly, RS2 Software plc held on to its all-time high of €1.32 with 5,000 shares changing hands at this level. Last Friday, the company announced the sale of a licence worth GBP8.5 million with a leading European financial institution.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index closed in positive territory for the fifth consecutive session with a further 0.1% increase to yet another fresh all-time high of 1,026.529 points in line with the continued decline in Eurozone yields to the 1.55% level. The 10-year Bund yield (the benchmark for Eurozone countries) has been on a downward trend in recent days following the pledge by the US Federal Reserve to maintain an accommodative policy especially with respect to low interest rates. Moreover, yields also declined following the downgrade of Italy and France (the country lost the last of its ‘AAA’ rating from Fitch) as well as the political crisis in Portugal which threatens to derail the country’s economic recovery.
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