IHI announce new management agreement in New York

 

The MSE Equity Price Index eased by 0.07% to 3,976.547 points following the declines in BMIT, GO and MIDI which outweighed the gains in HSBC. Meanwhile, BOV, MIA, Malita and MPC all closed flat as overall training activity remained stubbornly low at €0.05 million. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

GO plc shed 0.6% to the €3.58 level as 4,571 shares changed hands.

BMIT Technologies plc slipped to a near 2-month low as it lost 2% to the €0.49 level across a single trade of 1,200 shares.

Similarly, MIDI plc closed at a 3-month low as it dropped by 5% to the €0.38 level across 21,590 shares.

Meanwhile, HSBC Bank Malta plc rebounded by 1.9% to the €0.82 level as 500 shares changed hands.

In the same sector, Bank of Valletta plc remained at the €0.89 level across 4,590 shares.

Also among the larger equities by market cap, Malta International Airport plc traded unchanged at the €6.25 level as 3,330 shares changed hands. Yesterday, MIA published the April 2021 traffic results showing a 94% drop in passenger traffic to 39,392 movements when compared to the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, Airports Council International Europe (“ACI Europe”) published results for the first quarter of the year, which showed that traffic across European airports that it represented declined by 81.7% when compared to the same quarter in 2019. ACI Europe also downgraded the traffic forecast for European airports and is now predicting a full recovery to 2019 passenger volumes by 2025. Elsewhere, in another development, three separate airlines, namely Cyprus Airways, Air France and Aeroflot have all announced their intentions to start services to Malta in the summer. Twice-weekly flights are expected to be serviced between Malta and Larnaca, Paris and Moscow respectively.

A single trade of 400 shares left Malita Investments plc unchanged at the €0.88 level.

Elsewhere, Malta Properties Company plc recovered from an intraday low of €0.535 (-1.8%) before ending the day flat at the €0.545 level across 4,705 shares. The Board of Directors of MPC is recommending the payment of a net dividend of €0.012 per share (2019: €0.01 per share). Shareholders as at close of trading on Monday 14 June 2021 will be entitled to receive this dividend on Wednesday 21 July 2021 subject to shareholders’ approval during the upcoming Annual General Meeting scheduled to be held remotely on Thursday 15 July 2021.

Today, International Hotel Investments plc announced that its operating arm Corinthia Hotels Limited signed an agreement with private investment firm Reuben Brothers to manage and operate ‘The Surrey, a Corinthia Hotel’ in New York. The hotel, which was acquired by the Reuben Brothers in 2020 reportedly for a total consideration of USD150 million, is currently undergoing an extensive transformation and is expected to reopen in early 2023. This development will mark the Corinthia group’s first property in the United States and a second collaboration with Rueben Brothers, with whom a Corinthia Hotel is under development in Rome.

The RF MGS Index rebounded by 0.16% to 1,109.377 as the Eurozone Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) improved from the previous month, but failed to beat estimates for Germany, Italy, and France. Meanwhile, the Spanish PMI exceeded forecasts and recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Yesterday, the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was quoted as having said that interest rates may have to rise to keep up with the growth of the US economy, but later clarified that she was not trying to influence or predict the Federal Reserve’s decision.