Daily Market Highlights (20.10.15)

  • The MSE Share Index gained 0.22% to 4,338.653 points on heightened activity with over €318,000 worth of shares changing hands – the highest level of trading registered in the last three weeks. Among the ten active equities, six closed the day higher. Download a copy of today’s Equity Market Summary.
  • On the bond market, the RF MGS Index advanced by 0.14% to 1,136.947 points as the 10-year German Bund yield opened lower at the 0.56% level as a deeper-than-expected decline in German producer prices added pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to consider further stimulus. Nonetheless, the benchmark Bund rallied to 0.62% this afternoon after two members of the ECB’s Governing Council expressed resistance toward an imminent expansion of quantitative easing in the single-currency bloc. The ECB’s Governing Council is scheduled to meet in Malta on Thursday and markets are expecting President Mario Draghi to highlight a willingness to act to boost inflation, but nonetheless stop short of adjusting the current asset-purchase programme of €60 billion per month.
  • Following the recent Malta Government Stock issues, the two retail tranches were listed yesterday but failed to trade today. The indicative bid prices of the Central Bank of Malta for both issues were higher than the offer prices. In fact, the bid price for the 2.00% MGS 2020 issue stood at 106.80% (compared to an offer price of 106.25%) whilst that for the 2.30% MGS 2029 stood at 104.17% (compared to an offer price of 102.50%).
  • Meanwhile, trading in the new Hili Properties plc bond issue is expected to commence on Thursday 22 October.
  • The most actively traded equity was GO plc with 48,293 shares changing hands for a value of €167,000. The share price advanced by 2.9% to an almost two-month high of €3.55. Yesterday, the Company’s Board of Directors declared a net interim dividend of €0.3313 per share, which is the equivalent value of the entire shareholding in its subsidiary company Malta Properties Company plc (MPC). Each GO shareholder as at close of business tomorrow will receive one MPC share for every GO share held. MPC shares are expected to be admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange on 23 November 2015 and trading is expected to commence the following day. GO shares will trade ex-dividend as from Thursday 22 Ocotber.
  • Bank of Valletta plc added 0.4% to the €2.36 level on relatively healthy volumes of 31,134 shares. The Bank is expected to publish its annual preliminary results by the end of next week. Moreover, the investing public is also awaiting further developments in connection with the Bank’s intention to issue a subordinated debt security.
  • Mapfre Middleasea plc continued to recover from its recent declines and closed the day up by 0.5% at the €2.21 level across 6,000 shares.
  • The other positive performers of the day were Malita Investments plc, Tigne Mall plc and Plaza Centres plc. Trading volumes in each of these property companies was on the low side. The share price of Malita jumped by 6.1% to €0.935 on a miniscule deal of 1,100 shares and Plaza edged up 2% to regain the €1.00 level on 5,000 shares. Likewise, Tigne Mall advanced by 2.3% to a new all-time high of €0.95 on low activity of 1,200 shares.
  • Meanwhile, Malta International Airport plc closed down 1.0% at the €3.851 level across 12,111 shares. Recently, the Company published the traffic results for the month of September in which it revealed that it registered an 8.6% increase in passenger movements to a new record for the month of 502,823 passengers. In the meantime, Ryanair announced that it will be basing a third aircraft in Malta and it will operate an additional nine new routes as from the next summer season. The low cost carriers also confirmed that it will increase the frequency of some of the routes it currently operates.
  • A last minute trade of just 2,000 shares in RS2 Software plc dragged the equity 2.8% lower to the €2.42 level.
  • Single trades of 5,000 shares and 3,000 shares were also registered in Grand Harbour Marina plc and MIDI plc, leaving the equities unchanged at the €1.00 and €0.36 levels respectively.
  • Shortly after the close of today’s session International Hotel Investments plc issued a circular in connection with the recently announced bonus shares. Last Tuesday marked the cut-off date for shareholders to gain entitlement to the 3 bonus shares for every 100 shares held. The bonus shares are expected to be admitted to listing shortly after allocation on or around 23 October.