The share index extended yesterday’s gains by a further 0.5 per cent to 4,485.890 points as seven equities performed positively while another three closed unchanged.
Trading volumes remained elevated as nearly €473,000 worth of shares changed hands. The equity benchmark advanced by 0.2 per cent during the second week of January.
Most notably, RS2 Software also breached its previous all-time high for the sixth time this year as it closed at the €3.33 level (+2.1 per cent) across healthy volumes totalling 22,070 shares.
The equity of Malta International Airport advanced by 0.7 per cent to regain its all-time high of €4.30 across high volumes of 36,860 shares. The 2015 financial results of the airport operator will be published on February 24.
The equities of Bank of Valletta and its associate company Mapfre Middlesea also performed positively. BOV’s share price gained a further 0.9 per cent to close at the €2.23 level across elevated volumes of 51,156 shares.
Likewise, the equity of the insurance specialist closed up 1.3 per cent at the €2.33 level (its highest since early May 2009) across 14,278 shares.
GO and Simonds Farsons Cisk plcalso performed positively. GO added 0.3 per cent to regain the €3.10 level across 9,143 shares and Farsons traded back up to the €6 level (+0.2 per cent) on weak volumes of 1,645 shares.
The other positive performer of today’s trading session was the equity of MaltaPost, which registered a gain of 1.6 per cent to the €1.89,9 level across 5,436 shares.
This morning, the postal operator held its annual general meeting during which shareholders approved a number of resolutions including the payment of a final net dividend of 4c per share (payable on February 12) as well as the option to take up the dividend either in the form of cash or new shares at the attribution price of €1.80 per share.
Meanwhile, three equities closed unchanged. HSBC closed at the €1.73,1 level for the fourth time this week across 10,380 shares and Malita Investments and Malta Properties Company at 95c (10,000 shares) and 57c (34,900 shares) respectively.
Today marked the closure of Medserv's Intermediaries’ Offers for a €30 million bond issue (in US dollars and/or in euro) and the 6,375,000 shares representing the rights not being taken up by the two largest shareholders at €1.50 per share.
Meanwhile, eligible shareholders have until Monday to subscribe for the two for nine rights issue at the price of €1.50 per share.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index edged minimally up by 0.05 per cent to 1,137.668 points as the benchmark 10-year German Bund yield declined from the 0.49 per cent level of yesterday to 0.48 per cent today.
In addition to depressed oil prices and weak sentiment across international stock markets, minutes from the December meeting of the European Central Bank released yesterday evening showed that the ECB sees scope for further cuts to its deposit rate as the inflationary outlook deteriorates.
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