High volumes traded across IHI shares

Over 106,000 shares of International Hotel Investments plc changed hands during this morning’s trading session on the Borza with the share price easing by 0.6% to €0.795 after initially holding on to the €0.80 level.

On the other hand, Malta International Airport plc recovered most of this week’s earlier declines as its share price edged 1.2% higher to €1.569 thereby ending the week only minimally lower. Over 21,700 MIA shares traded this morning. The renewed demand for MIA shares followed the announcement earlier this week of the record number of passenger movements during September. In the first nine months of 2011, the airport operator registered a 7.9% growth in passenger traffic.

Bank of Valletta plc closed unchanged at the €2.50 level for the fourth consecutive session across ten trades amounting to 17,350 shares. Meanwhile, HSBC Bank Malta plc was inactive today with outstanding bids at €2.65 and offers in the market at €2.658. HSBC’s equity edged 0.8% higher during the previous four trading sessions.

GO plc continued to trade at the €1.10 level, representing a weekly drop of 1.8%. GO is shortly expected to announce its intentions on its participation or otherwise in the €30 million rights issue by the Greek company Forthnet.

The shares of Santumas Shareholdings plc, the closed-ended collective investment scheme, traded for the first time in almost three months. Almost 4,400 shares traded at the €1.90 level today, representing a 9.5% drop from the previous close and a 50% discount compared to the net asset value of €3.832 per share.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index shed a further 0.3% to a 1-month low of 988.439 points. Today’s decline reflected this morning’s surge in Eurozone yields to just below 1.96%. Over the week the local MGS benchmark closed in negative territory as the upturn in the early part of the week was offset by the declines in the latter part of the week.