Shallow trading activity prevails

The low trading activity across the local equity market prevailed during this morning’s trading session as only two equities were active. Sentiment was negatively affected in recent weeks by the ongoing developments related to the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund. The prevailing Eurozone sovereign debt crisis may also have contributed to the weakening activity however international equity markets have climbed sharply over the past few days after the Greek parliament voted in favour of additional austerity measures. This was mirrored by a similar recovery in the local equity market.

The MSE Share Index eased marginally lower to 3,333.478 points as MaltaPost plc’s share price dropped 1.5% to the €1.00 level across five trades totalling almost 7,900 shares. MaltaPost’s equity had traded up to a record level in excess of €1.10 per share in the first quarter of the year but the share price has failed to maintain these gains.

The only other active equity, Bank of Valletta plc, traded unchanged at the €2.70 level on volumes of only 2,135 shares. The Bank announced last week that it received acceptances totalling 95.2% of the shares of the La Valette Multi-Manager Property Fund. BOV indicated that payments of the amounts due will reach investors by not later than next Wednesday 6 July 2011.

The market is still awaiting an announcement from Middlesea Insurance plc with respect to details on the acquisition of Munich Re’s 19.9% shareholding by Mapfre Internacional and the latter’s mandatory offer for the remaining shares.