MSE Share Index regains upward trend

After two sessions of declines, the MSE Share Index regained its upward trend during this morning’s session with a 0.4% rise to 3,447.295 points. This morning’s upturn was partly due to the 0.8% increase in the share price of Bank of Valletta plc to a new 2013 high of €2.53 across seven deals totalling 5,850 shares. The Bank is scheduled to publish its preliminary full-year results next Thursday 31 October.

Similarly, GO plc continued to recover some of its recent declines with a further 1.7% increase to regain the €1.48 level on volumes of 3,910 shares.

The equity of RS2 Software plc closed in positive territory for the fourth time this week with a further 2.4% increase to yet another all-time high of €2.15 across seven deals totalling 30,376 shares. The IT equity currently stands 209% above its value at the beginning of the year mainly reflecting the GBP8.5 million licence acquired by Barclays Bank plc and the subsequent acquisition of a 10% stake in RS2. Barclays had also indicated its willingness to acquire a further 10% shareholding.

On the other hand, Crimsonwing plc eased minimally lower to €0.841 on a single deal of 10,000 shares. Crimsonwing’s equity has rallied by 71.6% since the start of 2013 largely due to the turnaround in the Group’s financials and the positive outlook for the current financial year ending 31 March 2014. In this respect, the Chairman Mr David Walsh explained that the Group has recently signed up three new international contracts including a global e-commerce rollout project.

Meanwhile, the other four active equities ended the session unchanged. In the banking sector, HSBC Bank Malta plc failed to hold on to an intra-day high of €2.64 to end the session unchanged at the €2.63 level across six trades totalling just over 15,000 shares. Lombard Bank Malta plc also maintained the €1.90 level on low volumes of 2,335 shares.

A further 4,650 shares of Malta International Airport plc were exchanged at the €2.00 level. During a news conference held this morning, MIA’s CEO Markus Klaushofer noted that 3.5 million passenger movements were registered so far this year, equivalent to the same amount registered during the whole of 2012. Mr Klaushofer further added that the first three weeks of October had shown almost identical passenger rates to the busy period in August. Furthermore, he indicated that forward bookings for the shoulder months are also strong.

The only other active equity, MaltaPost plc, closed again at the €1.05 level on low volumes of 2,512 shares.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index once again inched minimally higher to a 4-week high of 1,021.032 points in line with the new 4-week lows in Eurozone yields of around 1.75%.

Yesterday, the Treasury of Malta announced the prices of the new Malta Government Stocks. The 3% MGS 2019 is being issued at 103.75% giving a yield to maturity of 2.31% per annum with the 4.65% MGS 2032 priced at 100.25% giving a yield to maturity of 4.63% per annum. Subscriptions from retail investors will be accepted until Wednesday 30 October at 17.00 hours.