The MSE Equity Price Index moved into negative territory for the first time this week as the local equity benchmark shed 0.2% back to 4,401.748 points given that most active equities eased lower during today’s session.
The only positive performers were International Hotel Investments plc and Simonds Farsons Cisk plc. IHI’s share price moved higher for the third consecutive day with a rise of a further 2.9% to a fresh 29-month high of €0.70 across ten deals totalling 49,168 shares.
Yesterday, IHI held its Annual General Meeting during which the Board of Directors declared a net interim dividend of €0.02 per share to all shareholders as at close of trading on Tuesday 26 June.
Farsons edged 3.1% higher to recapture the €6.70 level across an insignificant deal of 155 shares.
Amongst the negative performers, the equity of HSBC Bank Malta plc released some of the recent gains as it drifted 0.5% lower back to the €1.83 level across 13,170 shares.
Similarly, the rebound in the share price of GO plc was short-lived as the equity slumped by 3.5% to the €3.36 level albeit on shallow volumes of 2,150 shares.
In the property segment, MIDI plc eased 0.9% lower to €0.432 on a single deal of 10,000 shares. Tigné Mall plc shed 5% to drop back to the €0.95 level across four deals totalling 70,230 shares and the recently listed Main Street Complex plc dropped back to the IPO price of €0.65 on volumes of 15,500 shares.
RS2 Software plc eased by 1.7% back to €1.15 across 13,000 shares. Yesterday, RS2 issued an interim directors’ statement updating the market on its business pipeline including the signing of new processing agreements as well as other two potential contracts which are close to being concluded.
Similarly, Medserv plc slipped 2.8% lower to the €1.03 level on low volumes of 8,469 shares.
Mapfre Middlesea plc and MaltaPost plc also trended in negative territory today albeit on very low trading activity.
Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta plc held on to the €1.76 level on volumes of 29,718 shares.
Likewise, Malta International Airport plc held on to the €5.00 level on volumes of 18,904 shares. This afternoon MIA published its traffic results for the month of May 2018 showing a 17.3% jump in passenger numbers to reach a record figure of 643,089 passengers. This is the first time that the number of passengers exceeded the 600,000 mark during the month of May. During the five months ended 31 May 2018, more than 2.4 million passenger movements were registered representing a 16.8% increase over the previous corresponding period.