The MSE Share Index jumped by 0.56% today to 4,637.472 points amid heightened activity across the local equity market amounting to a total value of €3.87 million.
Most of today’s activity was registered in Tigné Mall plc as more than 3.14 million shares, representing 5.56% of the company’s total issued share capital and 75% of the value traded across local equites, were exchanged across a total of five deals. The share price dropped by 4.1% back to the €0.93 level ahead of the interim results publication on Thursday August 10.
Bank of Valletta plc and HSBC Bank Malta plc also registered negative movements. BOV trended below the €2.00 level for the first time since late 2015 as the equity slid back to the €1.99 level before partially rebounding to close today’s session at the €1.998 level representing a marginal drop from the previous day’s closing price. Trading activity amounted to a total of 92,367 shares.
Similarly, HSBC shed 1% to drop back to the €1.98 level across four deals totalling 14,432 shares. The bank’s equity will turn ex-dividend as from tomorrow.
The only other negative performing equity was Plaza Centres plc with a 4.3% drop back to the €1.10 level across two deals totalling 45,000 shares.
On the other hand, Medserv plc rallied to a 3-month high of €1.399 before easing marginally lower to close today’s session at the €1.37 level - representing an increase of 14.2% from the previous closing price. A total of 159,000 shares were exchanged across nineteen deals.
Malita Investments plc also trended in positive territory with a 2.7% increase to regain the €0.76 level on heightened volumes of 165,000 shares. The company is expected to publish its 2017 interim results imminently following a Board of Directors meeting scheduled for today.
Likewise, healthy volumes were registered in FIMBank plc with a total of 220,000 shares changing hands. The equity also rallied to the $0.85 level for the first time since late last March before easing to a close of $0.80 which still represents an increase of 12.7% from the previous close. The trade finance specialist is scheduled to reveal its 2017 interim results tomorrow.
The only other positive performing equity was PG plc with a marginal 0.7% increase to regain the €1.399 level (its all-time closing high) on shallow volumes of 1,400 shares. The company is scheduled to publish its preliminary full-year results for the financial year ended April 30, 2017 on Thursday August 10.
Meanwhile, Malta International Airport plc held on to the €4.22 level across five deals totalling 29,231 shares. This afternoon, the airport operator announced its July traffic results revealing a 15.5% increase in passenger movements to an all-time monthly record of 675,111 movements on the back of continued growth in seat capacity coupled with a seat load factor of 86.7% (down 1.3 percentage points from July 2016).
Similarly, RS2 Software plc held on to the €1.789 level after recovering from an intra-day low of €1.75 on volumes of 25,000 shares.
On the bond market, the RF MGS Index trended marginally higher for the third consecutive session as eurozone yields remained at near 1-month lows in view of further disappointing data. The latest statistics revealed that in June exports and imports in Germany fell and the trade deficit in France widened.
Stock markets are volatile and subject to fluctuations which cannot be reasonably foreseen. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.