During this morning's session, the share price of Malta International Airport plc closed 5% lower at the €1.70 level across four trades totalling 59,000 shares.
The bulk of today's activity took place at the €1.77 level as three trades took place in quick succession.
However, on lack of further support in the market, a further offer of 4,000 shares sent the price down to the €1.70 level.
Yesterday afternoon, MIA issued a company announcement and a press release stating that it is giving a 100% refund to all scheduled airlines on their landing fees for the current winter schedule between the months of November and March.
In this morning's media it was revealed that this initiative will result in around €1.3 million loss in revenue for the airport operator.
High volumes were maintained in Bank of Valletta plc's equity as a further 83,119 shares changed hands today across forty two deals. The share price recovered from an intra-day low of €2.40 to close unchanged at the €2.42 level.
Investors have until next Friday to gain entitlement to the recommended final gross dividend of 8c per share.
Trading activity in HSBC Bank Malta plc shares also picked up today as the bank's share price edged 0.4% higher to the €2.69 level on volumes of over 66,000 shares.
On the other hand, the share price of Lombard Bank Malta plc eased 1c lower to €2.74 on activity totalling 21,508 shares. Both banks are expected to publish their respective interim statements in the coming days.
Middlesea Insurance plc published its interim statement this morning revealing a subdued but positive result for the third quarter (between July and September 2011) as the positive performance across all insurance portfolios compensated for the negative returns achieved from their investment portfolios arising from the challenging conditions across both the local and global equity markets.
The announcement failed to generate any trades as the equity remained inactive with offers placed at the last traded price of 90c and highest bids placed at the 85c level.
On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index eased 0.2% lower to 990.377 points as Eurozone yields marginally recovered to regain the 1.8% level ahead of this afternoon's confidence vote in Italy's leadership.
Various Malta Government Stocks were again active today ahead of next week's new stock issues.
Last week, the Treasury announced the issuance of two new Malta Government Stocks.
The two issues available for subscription by the public for amounts up to €100,000 (nominal) are the 4.25% MGS 2017 (III) and the 5.2% MGS 2031 (I) for a total aggregate amount of €100 million with an over-allotment option of another €44 million.
The prices of these stocks will be announced on Thursday, ahead of the subscription period between Monday and November 16. Further details available at http://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2011/new-stock-issues-mgs10/.
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