Daily Market Highlights (06.10.15)

  • The MSE Share Index extended yesterday’s decline and dropped by a further 0.5% today to 4,308.385 points. Activity was centred around Lombard and BOV whilst MaltaPost and Farsons reached new all-time highs. Download a copy of today’s Equity Market Summary.
  • On the bond market, the RF MGS Index retreated from yesterday’s 7-week high and dropped by 0.34% to 1,133.111 points as the 10-year German Bund yield continued to edge higher and recovered from the sharp decline registered last Friday afternoon. Yields approached the 0.60% level earlier this afternoon despite weak industrial data from Germany which unexpectedly dropped on weakened demand from China and other regions outside Europe.
  • Subscriptions from retail investors for the newly issued Malta Government Stocks close tomorrow afternoon. The prices of the new MGS are as follows: (i) 2.00% MGS 2020 (V) FI at 106.25% (YTM of 0.714% pa) and (ii) 2.30% MGS 2029 (II) FI at 102.50% (YTM of 2.09% pa).
  • Meanwhile, subscriptions from the General Public for the €37 million bond issue of Hili Properties plc open tomorrow morning.
  • FIMBank plc was the worst performer of the day as the equity shed 7.1% to the USD0.46 level across 27,800 shares.
  • Also in the banking sector, Bank of Valletta plc dropped 1.7% to the €2.35 level across 22,057 shares. BOV’s annual financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2015 are expected to be published by the end of October. Recently, the Bank also announced that it lodged an application with the Listing Authority for a subordinated debt issuance programme of a maximum of €150 million over the next twelve months. Further details will be issued in the Prospectus and Final Terms once approval is granted.
  • The two other negative performers were RS2 Software plc and Malta International Airport plc with declines of 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. Both equities continued to retreat from their respective all-time highs. RS2 closed at the €2.50 level across 8,000 shares whilst the equity of the airport operator closed at the €3.83 level on volumes of 8,289 shares.
  • Meanwhile, the top performer of the day was MaltaPost plc which continued to move further into record territory and closed the session up 2.9% at the €1.75 level across low volumes of 2,776 shares. This morning, the postal operator announced that its Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on Friday 4 December to consider and approve the financial statements for the year ended 30 September 2015.
  • Likewise, Simonds Farsons Cisk plc closed 0.9% higher at a new all-time high of €5.80 across 2,735 shares despite trading without the entitlement to the net interim dividend of €0.0333 per share. Last week the Company published its interim financial results which showed that during the first half of the 2015/16 financial year, the Group registered another positive performance with profits after tax rising by 14% to €4.6 million. The interim dividend will be paid on Tuesday 20 October 2015.
  • The equity of Lombard Bank Malta plc advanced by a further 0.9% to close at €2.18 after briefly touching a new multi-year high of €2.20. Activity increased to 40,000 shares.
  • The other positive performers were HSBC Bank Malta plc and Mapfre Middlesea plc as the two equities edged up by 0.6% and 0.1% respectively. HSBC closed the day at the €1.81 level across 9,400 shares while a single trade of 2,650 shares in the insurance company was executed at the €2.113 level.
  • International Hotel Investments plc closed the day unchanged at the €0.80 level across insignificant volumes of 2,240 shares. Subject to obtaining the necessary approvals, the company will be distributing a bonus share issue of 3 new shares for every 100 shares held to those shareholders as at close of trading on 13 October.
  • Yesterday evening GlobalCapital plc announced that EIP plc acquired 8.93% of the issued share capital of the company.