HSBC at a new 29-month low

The share price of HSBC Bank Malta plc dropped by 1.1% today to close at a new 29-month low of €2.58 on lack of support for the equity at the previous 2011 low of €2.60 and fresh offers entering the market. Thirteen trades were executed during this morning’s trading session for a total of over 12,600 shares.

GO plc’s share price slid back towards its all-time low of €1.00 following this morning’s announcement referring to the transfer of Forthnet’s shares to the ‘Under Surveillance’ segment on the Athens Stock Exchange. This arose following the goodwill impairments totalling €56.9 million incurred by Forthnet in its financial statements between 2010 and the first six months of 2011 which led to losses in Forthnet’s books which are greater than 30% of the total equity thereby breaching the parameters of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) Rulebook. Further details available at https://rizzofarrugia.com/news-events/2011/forthet-shares-under-surveillance-go18/. Five trades totalling 2,000 GO shares were traded at €1.001 representing a 3.7% drop from the previous close.

Meanwhile Bank of Valletta plc edged 0.8% higher to regain the €2.52 level on fresh demand for these shares. A total of 9,325 shares changed hands today ahead of the Bank’s Annual General Meeting scheduled to be held on Friday 16 December. During the meeting, shareholders will be asked to approve a number of resolutions including the recommended final gross dividend of €0.08 per share and a 1 for 8 bonus share issue.

The MSE Share Index closed the day 0.3% lower at 3,122.839 points. This week Crimsonwing plc is expected to publish its interim financial statements for the 6-month period to 30 September 2011 while on Thursday 1 December, MaltaPost plc will be publishing its September 2011 full-year results and also declaring a full-year dividend to shareholders.

On the bond market, the Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index edged 0.2% higher to 971.006 points as Eurozone yields eased marginally lower. This morning, Italy succeeded in selling 3-year and 10-year bonds but at higher yields. In fact, yields on 3-year paper shot up from 4.93% in October to 7.89% with yields on 10-year paper rising from 6.06% to 7.56%.