A busy day across the equity market

 

The MSE Equity Price Index erased most of yesterday’s decline as it rebounded by 0.52% to 4,814.581 points mainly driven by the gains in the share prices of RS2, IHI and Farsons. On the other hand, among the large companies GO, HSBC and FIMBank trended lower. Trading activity increased markedly as €0.84 million worth of shares changed hands. Volumes in BOV, MIA and RS2 represented the lion’s share of today’s activity. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

Bank of Valletta plc maintained the €1.17 level across 186,919 shares having a market value of €0.22 million. The newly issued 3.75% BOV subordinated bonds 2026/2031 were admitted to listing today and trading may commence as from tomorrow.

Strong volumes were also transacted in the equity of Malta International Airport plc which held on to the €7.15 level on activity totalling 24,494 shares having a market value of €0.17 million. This afternoon, MIA published its traffic results for the month of June which saw an 8.8% increase in passenger movements. Overall, during the first six months of the year, MIA welcome more than 3.2 passengers, representing a 5.9% increase over the same period last year and in line with the full-year forecast provided by MIA at the start of 2019. The airport operator also reiterated its target of handling 7.2 million passenger movements this year.

BMIT Technologies plc (€0.535), Lombard Bank Malta plc (€2.20) and Santumas Shareholdings plc (€1.40) also finished the day unchanged albeit on light trading volumes.

In contrast, RS2 Software plc continued to rally as the equity reached a fresh three-year high of €1.69 (+3%) across 103,312 shares having a market value of €0.17 million.

Also among the large companies, International Hotel Investments plc moved 2.4% higher to regain the €0.84 level on a total of 13,654 shares.

Simonds Farsons Cisk plc added 2% to the €10.20 level across 2,300 shares.

The best performing equity today was Mapfre Middlesea plc which climbed 4.5% to the €2.08 level albeit on trivial volumes. The company is expected to kick-start the interim reporting season on 12 July with the publication of the 30 June financial statements.

In the property segment, three companies trended in positive territory today. Trident Estates plc moved back to its 2019 high of €1.95 (+1.6%) across 10,032 shares.

Malta Properties Company plc (21,532 shares) and Plaza Centres plc (6,350 shares) added 1.5% and 1% to €0.66 and €1.01 respectively.

Conversely, MIDI plc shed 1.5% to the €0.64 level across 39,550 shares.

HSBC Bank Malta plc opened at a fifteen-year low of €1.51 (-4.4%) before partially recovering to end the day 0.6% lower at the €1.57 level on a total of 36,385 shares.

GO plc eased by 0.4% to the €4.56 level after partially rebounding from an intra-day low of €4.40 (-3.9%) across ten deals totalling 9,741 shares.

A single deal of 28,800 shares forced the equity of PG plc to move 1.8% lower to the €1.60 level. The equity is trading ex-dividend and the recently declared dividend will be paid on 16 July.

FIMBank plc shed 0.8% back to the USD0.62 level on volumes of 30,576 shares. FIMBank will be publishing its interim financial statements on 8 August.

The RF MGS Index trended lower for the third consecutive day as it slipped by a further 0.31% (the sharpest daily drop in almost twelve months) to 1,144.928 points. All prices of Malta Government Stocks (“MGS”) posted declines, particularly at the longer end of the yield curve where the two longest-dated MGS’s – namely the 3% MGS 2040 and the 2.4% MGS 2041 – fell by around 100 basis points. The strong rebound in bond yields across the globe was further supported by heightened uncertainties on whether the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates during the upcoming two-day monetary policy meeting which is scheduled for 30 and 31 July.