Four of today's six active equities closed this morning's trading session in negative territory dragging the MSE Share Index 0.5% lower to 3,481.157 points. MaltaPost was today's worst performer with a decline of 8.9% to the €0.82 level on very weak volumes, followed by Bank of Valletta plc (-1.5%), Malta International Airport plc (-1.3%) and FIMBank plc (-1%). HSBC Bank Malta plc and International Hotel Investments plc closed the session unchanged.

BOV's equity reversed most of its recent gains as the share price declined by 1.5% to €3.25 on volumes of 16,856 shares. Similarly MIA's equity closed 1.3% lower at €1.58 on increased activity of 14,000 shares with further bids of 2,786 shares remaining unsatisfied at this level. Last week the airport operator announced that as from January 2011, International Airport Advertising Corporation Ltd, will be taking over the advertising programme on MIA's premises.

IHI traded at its 2010 high of €0.90 for the fourth successive session. This morning a further 33,054 shares traded at this level. Almost 110,000 IHI shares changed hands in the past four days.

IHI will be convening an Extraordinary General Meeting on 27 August for shareholders to approve a 4% bonus share issue and a buy-back option by the company at the €1 level.

Following three days of inactivity, FIMBank's US Dollar denominated equity returned to action with strong volumes of 196,951 shares changing hands at the USD0.97 level, representing a 1% decline from the previous close. Following the publication of the June 2010 interim financial results on 5 August, 713,140 FIMBank shares traded on the secondary market.

On the bond market, the price of the 5.25% MGS 2030 (I) jumped 218 basis points to 103.18% in line with the continued decline in eurozone yields to record lows. The Malta Stock Exchange have not yet confirmed the expected date for the listing of the three new MGS issues.

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