The MSE Equity Price Index surged by 1.34 per cent on Friday to a seven-week high of 4,383.395 points as several equities performed positively while trading volumes increased notably to a near two-month high of €0.77 million.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc added 2 per cent to an eight-month high of €7.70 on strong volumes totalling 28,300 shares having a market value of €0.22 million.
Two deals totalling 8,200 shares lifted the equity of GO plc to its highest level in nearly 12 years of €3.64 (+2.8 per cent).
HSBC Bank Malta plc added 1.7 per cent to regain the €1.75 level across 23,693 shares while Bank of Valletta plc rebounded by 0.7 per cent from its six-year low of €1.44 to the €1.45 level on activity totalling 23,135 shares.
Within the same sector, FIMBank plc moved to a seven-month high of $0.63 (+3.3 per cent) across 20,493 shares.
PG plc advanced by 0.7 per cent to regain its 2018 high of €1.40 on eight deals totalling 62,885 shares.
International Hotel Investments plc and Santumas Shareholdings plc also performed positively on Friday with gains of over 4 per cent to €0.645 and €1.41 respectively albeit on shallow volumes.
In contrast, both Tigne’ Mall plc and Plaza Centres plc posted sharp declines. Tigne’ Mall shed 3 per cent back to the €0.96 level across 40,333 shares while Plaza returned to the €1.00 level (-3.8 per cent) on activity totalling 92,500 shares.
Meanwhile, Malta International Airport plc retained its all-time high of €6.05 across 3,809 shares.
Mapfre Middlesea plc also traded unchanged at the €1.83 level on a single deal of 100,000 shares.
The RF MGS Index erased Thursday's gains as it slipped by 0.13 per cent to a fresh four-year low of 1,084.385 points. The drop in the prices of Malta Government Stocks reflected movements in the yields of Italian government bonds.
The latter came under heavy selling pressure (yields surged) amid new concerns over the sustainability of the country’s fiscal position after the populist government enacted a more aggressive budget deficit than investors had previously anticipated.
Stock markets are volatile and subject to fluctuations which cannot be reasonably foreseen. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.