Daily Market Highlights (11.11.11)

  • MSE Share Index edged minimally higher during the final session of the week to close at 3,079.798 points on the back of a 0.6% rise in BOV which offset the decline in GO. HSBC was the only other active equity and closed unchanged at €2.65. The local equity market benchmark Index closed the week 1.3% lower after all the large cap equities, with the exception of BOV, traded lower during the past five sessions. Download a copy of today’s Equity Market Summary.
  • Yesterday afternoon, the Treasury published the prices of the two new Malta Government Stocks as follows: the 4.25% MGS 2017 (III) FI was priced at 103.75% giving a yield to maturity of 3.546% and the 5.2% MGS 2031 (I) was priced at 100.75% giving a yield to maturity of 5.139%. Subscriptions open on Monday 14 November and close on Wednesday 16 November. Application Forms available here.
  • BOV share price closes higher on the final day of trading with the entitlement to the final dividend on lower levels of supply in the market. Share price up 0.6% during this morning’s session to €2.44 on volumes of over 50,000 shares. Equity turns ex-dividend as from next Monday. Further details on the September 2011 full-year results available here. BOV was one of the two equities to end the week in positive territory with a 1.7% weekly rise across significant volumes amounting to more than 350,000 shares.
  • Meanwhile HSBC closed the week 1.9% lower as the equity failed to recover from the mid-week declines. Next week the Bank is expected to publish its Interim Statement covering the performance during the third quarter of the year.
  • The only other active equity today was GO which slid a further 2.8% lower to the €1.02 level representing a weekly drop of 4.7%. This morning the quad-play telecom operator published its Interim Directors’ Statement covering the first nine months of this year. explaining that during the first nine months of 2011 it continued to grow its customer connections whilst maintaining a robust operating performance from its local operations resulting in a healthy level of profitability and cash generation despite the current challenging economic climate and an increasingly competitive market. The Directors made reference to the €22.2 million loss incurred by GO in the first six months of 2011 from its indirect investment in the Greek telecommunications company Forthnet. However, the announcement failed to provide any indications with respect to Forthnet’s performance during Q3 and its upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting called to approve a €30 million rights issue.
  • Grand Harbour Marina also published its Interim Statement this morning revealing a 12.8% rise in berthing revenues from the marina in Malta to €1.67 million during the first nine months of 2011. The announcement also confirmed the sale of a second 30-metre super-yacht berth. Progress was also reported at the Turkish IC Cesme Marina in which GHM has a 45% beneficial ownership. Increased occupancy levels in the Turkish marina were registered whilst full-occupancy of its landside retail units was maintained.  Further information on GHM available here.
  • Next week a further 9 companies with a December year end are expected to publish their respective Interim Statements, including HSBC, MIA, Medserv and RS2 Software.