Daily Market Highlights (11.11.16)

  • On the bond market, the RF MGS Index suffered the sharpest drop ever as it plunged 1.51% to a near six-month low of 1,147.554 points. The opening indicative bid prices of the Central Bank of Malta (CBM) for all fixed-coupon Malta Government Stocks (MGS) fell sharply. Indeed, the bid prices for twelve different stocks dropped by more than 200 basis points (i.e. 2 percentage points). In particular, the bid price for the longest dated stock – the 2.4% 2041 I R – fell by 452 basis points whilst the bid price for the recently issued longer-dated MGS – the 2.1% 2039 I R – plummeted by 403 basis points to 101.31% which is below the issue price of 102.50%. The 10-year benchmark German Bund yield advanced further, touching an intra-day high of 0.345% – the highest since 2 February 2016. The election of Mr Donald Trump as President of the US is continuing to have magnified effects across international financial markets. Meanwhile, many international financial analysts are now eagerly awaiting the decisions from the upcoming monetary policy meetings of both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) to be held in December.
  • On the equity market, the MSE Share Index erased yesterday’s marginal decline of 0.05% as it rebounded by 0.34% to a four-month high of 4,557.203 points. Week-on-week, the Index jumped by 0.87%, largely reflecting the gains in the share prices of three large companies – HSBC (+2.8%), BOV (+1.1%) and GO (+1.0%). These outweighed the drops in three other heavyweights: RS2 (-1.9%), IHI (-1.4%) and MIA (-0.5%). Download a copy of today’s Equity Market Summary.
  • The most actively traded equity today was Bank of Valletta plc which advanced 0.6% to a fresh near nine-year high of €2.334 on strong volumes totalling 74,506 shares for a value of €0.17 million (representing 67% of the total value of equities traded today). The equity will start trading without the entitlement to the recently declared final gross dividend of €0.0852 per share (net: €0.0554) next Tuesday 15 November.
  • Meanwhile, BOV’s insurance associate, Mapfre Middlesea plc, surged 7.1% to the €2.25 level albeit on trivial volumes.
  • Low volumes were also transacted in Simonds Farsons Cisk plc which edged 0.8% higher to the €6.60 level.
  • GO plc recaptured its over five-month high of €3.25 (+0.6%) after rebounding from an intra-day low of €3.17 (-1.9%). A total of 10,407 shares traded today.
  • In contrast, International Hotel Investments plc fell 1.4% to a near one-month low of €0.65 across 17,471 shares. This morning, IHI announced that it submitted an application to the Listing Authority of the Malta Financial Services Authority requesting the admissibility to listing of €40 million in new unsecured bonds maturing in 2026. The new bonds are principally targeted to existing bondholders of the 6.25% IHI plc 2017/20 (which will be redeemed early on 9 April 2017) and the 6.5% IHG 2017/19 (which will also be redeemed on the first date possible – i.e. 1 July 2017). IHI will provide further information on the issue of the new bonds after the issue of the necessary approval by the Listing Authority.
  • Lombard Bank Malta plc traded for the first time in the last five trading sessions and dropped by 3.6% to the €2.101 level on shallow volumes.
  • Meanwhile, a single deal of just 1,960 shares left the equity of Malta International Airport plc unchanged at the €4.08 level. On Monday, MIA published its October traffic results revealing a 10.4% increase over the same month last year to over half-a-million passengers – the first time that passenger movements exceeded the 500,000 mark in the month of October. During the first ten months of 2016, MIA registered a 7.8% increase in passenger movements to 4.4 million when compared to the same period last year. In July, MIA had revised upwards its passenger forecast for 2016 to +7.5% to an estimated throughput of 4.97 million passengers.
  • Likewise, HSBC Bank Malta plc (9,866 shares) maintained the €1.85 level whilst FIMBank plc closed flat at the USD0.89 level after touching an intra-day five-month low of USD0.853 on volumes totalling 10,00 shares.