BOV & HSBC force the local equity index lower

The MSE Equity Price Index dropped by 0.26% to 4,813.852 points as the declines in BOV and HSBC, coupled with the negative performance of Mapfre Middlesea, outweighed the gains in three other shares. Meanwhile, FIMBank, MIA and MPC ended the day unchanged whilst trading volumes improved to €0.33 million from €0.19 million yesterday. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

Bank of Valletta plc retracted by 1.4% to the €1.38 level after partially recovering from an intra-day low of €1.335 (-4.6%). A total of 30,019 shares changed hands. This morning, the bank published a Prospectus in connection with the issuance of €50 million 3.75% unsecured subordinated bonds maturing between 2026 and 2031. Shareholders as at close of trading today will receive one bonus share for every ten shares held. The equity turns ex-bonus as from next Monday 10 June.

Within the same segment, HSBC Bank Malta plc eased by 0.6% to the €1.63 level across 5,500 shares

Mapfre Middlesea plc shed 0.9% to €2.20 on trivial volumes.

Conversely, BMIT Technologies plc added 0.9% to regain its highest closing price ever of €0.55 level on heightened volumes totalling 284,652 shares having a total market value of €0.16 million.

GO plc recaptured the €4.50 level (+0.4%) across 7,766 shares.

Two deals totalling 9,000 shares lifted the equity of Tigné Mall plc 1.1% higher to the €0.91 level. The company is scheduled to hold its AGM on 20 June. Shareholders as at close of trading on 18 June will be eligible to receive a final net dividend of €0.0131 per share.

Meanwhile, Malta Properties Company plc held on to the €0.635 level across 26,637 shares. MPC is scheduled to hold its AGM on 11 June.

Malta International Airport plc also ended unchanged at the €7.50 level after recovering from an intra-day low of €7.25 (-3.3%). A total of 8,157 shares traded. Today, MIA published its traffic results for the month of May revealing a 4.8% increase in passengers to 0.67 million movements on the back of a 5.3% increase in seat capacity which was partially offset by a marginal decline in the seat load factor to 80.2%. Since the start of 2019, MIA welcomed a total of 2.5 million passengers, representing an increase of 4.2% over the corresponding period last year.

FIMBank plc stayed at its 2019 low of USD0.60 on light trading volumes.

The RF MGS Index trended higher for the fourth consecutive day as it advanced by a further 0.17% to 1,128.747 points – the highest level since early November 2017. Several prices of Malta Government Stocks reached fresh record highs as sovereign euro bond yields remained under considerable downward pressure. In fact, the 10-year benchmark German Bund yield fell to a new record low of minus 0.24% this morning ahead of the ECB monetary policy meeting which was held in the afternoon. During the monetary policy meeting, the ECB Governing Council decided to leave interest rates unchanged and pushed back the target date for when the central bank will start considering hiking interest rates to “at least through the first half of 2020” from the previous indication of “at least through the end of 2019”. Furthermore, the ECB maintained its pledge of maintaining interest rates at the current record low level “for as long as necessary” whilst also provided further details on the new ‘Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations’ that will become available to commercial European banks in September 2019.