Daily Market Highlights (23.05.14)

  • The gains in BOV and Middlesea offset the declines in the other active equities helping the MSE Share Index edge 0.3% higher to 3,406.680 points. Download a copy of the Equity Market Summary. Over the week, the local equity benchmark slipped 0.4% largely due to the weekly declines in most of the large cap equities including HSBC, IHI, GO and FIMBank.
  • On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index inched marginally higher to 1,039.514 points as Eurozone yields continued to recover and reached the 1.40% level for the first time in over a week as the ‘safe-haven’ bunds fell out of favour after the credit ratings of Greece (B) and Spain (BBB) were lifted by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s respectively.
  • This morning, the Treasury of Malta announced the issue of two new Malta Government Stocks for a total aggregate amount of €100 million subject to an over-allotment option of up to a further €80 million. The General Public has the opportunity of applying only in the new 4.3% MGS 2033 (I) in multiples of €100 and up to a maximum of €100,000 (nominal) per application. The offer price will be determined on Thursday 29 May 2014.Subscriptions open on Monday 02 June and close on Wednesday 04 June for the General Public.
  • An insignificant deal, executed in the last moments of this morning’s trading session, in BOV lifted the Bank’s share price by 1.4% to recapture the €2.15 level. Most of this morning’s trades in BOV were executed within the €2.10 – €2.12 range with a total of 41,968 shares changing hands across 21 trades. Today, the Bank paid out the recently announced net interim dividend of €0.0276 per share.
  • The share price of Middlesea Insurance also closed in positive territory with a 2.2% increase to regain the €0.92 level on low volumes of 3,239 shares.
  • On the other hand, the share price of HSBC eased minimally lower to €2.109 on low volumes of 7,311 shares. The equity of Plaza Centres plc dropped by 5.6% to €0.59 on significant volumes of 138,300 shares.
  • Similarly, the share price of MIA eased 0.9% lower to €2.28 on a single trade of 1,290 shares.
  • The only other active equity, GO, ended the session unchanged at €1.95 after recovering from an intra-day low of €1.90 across 16,500 shares.