The Malta Stock Exchange Share Index shed a further 0.4% this morning as the declines registered in the share prices of HSBC Bank Malta plc, International Hotel Investments plc, GO plc and FIMBank plc offset the gains of Bank of Valletta plc and MaltaPost plc. Volumes increased in HSBC, BOV and MaltaPost with a total value of €0.28 million worth of trades across the 8 equities.

Following last week's 1% drop, HSBC's share price shed a further 1% to drop back to its 2010 low of €3.00 level on increased volumes of over 31,500 shares. Meanwhile BOV's equity recovered some of last week's 3.6% decline as its share price increased by 0.9% to regain the €3.28 level. Almost 29,000 BOV shares changed hands during this morning's session.

FIMBank plc also succumbed to some last-minute selling pressure with the US Dollar denominated equity declining 6.5% to a fresh 57-month low of US$1.01 on weak volumes of 6,675 shares.

On the other had, MaltaPost plc reversed last week's 3.3% drop as fresh bids helped the share price of the postal operator rise 3.5% to regain its 2010 high of €0.90. 81,000 shares were exchanged across seven trades.

On the IT front, Loqus Holdings plc (formerly Datatrak Holdings plc) slumped 19.4% this morning to drop back to the €0.15 as the trade range in this equity was lifted by the Malta Stock Exchange. The share price of Loqus Holdings' has more than halved since hitting a 2010 high of €0.32 on 26 March 2010. In the recently published Interim Statement the IT Group explained that Loqus is still being impacted by the international economic situation although moderate positive progress is expected in the second half of 2010.

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