During this morning’s trading session of the stock exchange, the share price of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc recovered most of last week’s 8.7% drop. The equity jumped 7% to regain the €1.75 level across two trades amounting to 1,200 shares. The Farsons Group recently announced a 19.4% increase in half year profits to €2.2 million and the Directors declared a net interim dividend of €0.0133 per share representing a 33% over last year’s interim dividend. The dividend is expected to be paid 22 October.

Meanwhile most of the other active equities within the banking sector had a negative day. HSBC Bank Malta plc touched a new 2010 low of €2.795 before closing at the €2.80 level – still a marginal decline from the previous close. Just over 19,600 HSBC shares changed hands today. Bank of Valletta plc failed to hold on to its intra-day high of €3.27 as the share price eased back to the €3.24 level representing a 0.3% decline from the previous close. A total of 31,400 BOV shares exchanged with further offers outstanding at the last traded price.

FIMBank plc also edged 1% lower to drop back to the US$0.95 level across six trades totalling 35,314 shares. Last week, the trade finance specialist announced a new 3-year bond denominated in both euros and US Dollars. Details of the bond issue and copy of the prospectus are available at http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2010/details-of-new-bond-issue-6/.

On the other hand, fresh bids lifted the share price of Middlesea Insurance plc 2.1% higher to €0.97 on volumes of just over 2,200 shares while Malta International Airport plc and MaltaPost plc closed unchanged at €1.52 and €0.90 respectively.

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