The share index shed a further 0.06 per cent today to 4,419.615 points as the declines in the share prices of MIA and Farsons outweighed the 2.7 per cent rebound in MPC.
Most of today’s trading activity took place in the equity of Simonds Farsons Cisk which slipped by 0.2 per cent from its all-time high of €6.50.
A total of 34,100 shares traded (having a market value of €0.22 million and representing 73 per cent of the total value of equities traded today) with the equity easing to €6.49.
This morning, Farsons announced that its board of directors is scheduled to meet on September 2016 to consider and approve the Group’s financial statements for the six-month period ended July 31.
The directors will also consider the declaration of an interim dividend which would be paid to all shareholders as at close of trading on October 3.
The other negative performing equity was Malta International Airport as two deals totalling 1,400 shares pulled the equity 1.1 per cent lower to the €4.20,5 level.
Last week, MIA published the August traffic results revealing a 2.3 per cent increase in passenger movements over August 2015.
During the first eight months of 2016, MIA registered a 7.7 per cent increase in passenger movements to 3.36 million when compared to the same period last year.
In July, MIA had revised upwards its passenger growth forecast for 2016 to +7.5 per cent to 4.97 million passengers compared to the previous 2016 forecast of 4.73 million (+2.4 per cent) revealed in January.
In the banking sector, both Bank of Valletta (12,983 shares) and HSBC (2,718 shares) traded flat at €2.25 and €1.60 respectively.
Likewise, a single deal of 30,000 shares left the equity of FIMBank unchanged at the 91c5US level.
In contrast, Malta Properties Company partially recovered yesterday’s decline as it recaptured the 53c level (+2.7 per cent) on volumes totalling 25,800 shares.
Yesterday evening, International Hotel Investments announced that it has acquired the remaining 80 per cent shareholding in QPM Limited.
As a result, QPM is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of IHI.
QPM is a multi-disciplinary consultancy company providing services in architecture, civil and structural engineering, integrated building services, interior design, project management, cost management and sustainability management.
The board of IHI expressed its confidence that the full ownership of QPM will place IHI in a stronger position to achieve its strategic objective to develop and operate properties worldwide.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index erased yesterday’s gains as it fell by 0.15 per cent to a new four-week low of 1,164.626 points.
Today’s drop reflected the sharp upward movements in euro zone yields on fresh concerns on the ability of the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue stimulating growth through an even more expanded monetary easing programme.
The ECB executive board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger said the central bank should hold off on new monetary easing measures.
In fact, the 10-year benchmark German touched a near twelve-week high of 0.081 per cent this morning (the highest since the publication of the Brexit referendum result) before retreating to the 0.045 per cent level.
Similarly, movements in the 10-year yields of Italy and Spain continued to remain volatile, touching intra-day highs of 1.33 per cent and 1.139 per cent from the lows of 1.25 per cent and 1.048 per cent registered yesterday.
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