The share index extended the gains of the past two trading sessions by a further 0.66 per cent to 4,613.384 points – the highest level since mid-April 2008.
Activity was spread across 10 equities – six registered gains, one closed unchanged while three shares suffered declines. Trading activity across the equity market improved notably to €345,000 worth of shares changing hands, largely on heightened activity in the equity of BOV.
Bank of Valletta was the highest traded equity for the second consecutive day. The bank’s share price retreated from its four-week high of €2.28,5 to the €2.27,1 level (-0.6 per cent) across volumes totalling 60,611 shares having a market value of nearly €138,000.
Also among the large companies, Malta International Airport slipped by a mere 0.1 per cent to the €4.38 level across 7,504 shares. Last Friday, MIA announced that VIE (Malta) Ltd – which is ultimately owned by Flughafen Wien AG, the operator of Vienna Airport – increased its total direct and indirect interest in MIA from 32.94 to 48.44 per cent.
The other negative performer today was MIDI as the equity declined by 0.5 per cent to the 38c8 level across 12,000 shares. Shareholders as at close of trading tomorrow will be entitled to receive a final net dividend 0.7c per share.
In contrast, Malta Properties Company regained the 58c level (+3.2 per cent) across 32,523 shares.
HSBC closed 3.1 per cent higher at a nine-week high of €1.72 after touching an intra-day high of €1.74. A total of 11,160 shares changed hands today.
RS2 Software had a relatively volatile session today after it managed to recover from an intra-day low of €3.75,1 to end at the €3.85 level – representing an uplift of 2.6 per cent – across 21,430 shares.
Medserv continued to trend higher as it added another 1.1 per cent to a fresh 10-week high of €1.82 across 6,250 shares.
Similarly, GO touched an intra-day, near six-month high of €3.48,1 before settling 0.8 per cent above yesterday’s close at the €3.48 level. A total of 8,457 shares changed hands today. Shareholder as at close of trading tomorrow will be entitled to receive the recently declared final net dividend of 10c per share.
A single deal of just 1,000 shares pushed the equity of 6pm Holdings 0.6 per cent higher to a new all-time high of 88p.
Meanwhile, two deals totalling 12,600 shares left the equity of International Hotel Investments unchanged at the 65c level.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index reversed most of the gains of the last two days as it slipped by 0.19 per cent to 1,155.749 points. Euro zone yields rebounded slightly as the downward pressure on the price of oil took a pause on renewed speculation that some sort of an agreement between oil producing countries for an output freeze can be reached in the coming two weeks.
The 10-year benchmark German Bund yield advanced from a near one-year low of 0.08 to 0.11 per cent. On the economic front, the most recent data showed that Germany’s industrial sector production declined by 0.5 per cent in February from the previous month, significantly better than the 1.8 per cent contraction expected by economists.
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