Daily Market Highlights (20.05.10)

  • MSE Share Index eases marginally during this morning’s session to close at 3,544.513 points as Middlesea sheds 0.7% following a recent strong run. Meanwhile the other four active equities closed unchanged. Download a copy of today’s Equity Market Summary.
  • BOV attracts 13,700 shares in activity at an unchanged price of €3.30. Further bids remain unsatisfied at the closing price with lowest offers now placed at €3.35. The Bank is scheduled to pay its gross interim dividend of €0.075 (net: €0.049) per share on Friday 28 May.
  • Meanwhile HSBC failed to register any activity. Offers already placed lower than the last closing price of €3.08 whilst best bids now in the market at the €3.06 level.
  • Middlesea’s positive run comes to a halt this morning as the share price eases 0.7% to €0.885. Just over 25,600 shares change hands with best bids now placed at €0.855 and lowest offers outstanding at the closing price. Last Monday’s Interim Directors’ Statement revealed that the Middlesea Group registered a profit before tax of €2.8 million during the first three months of 2010 (Q1 2009: loss of €5.3 million). This substantial improvement over last year’s loss is due to the satisfactory performance by its local operations and the closure of its loss-making Italian subsidiary, Progress Assicurazioni.
  • 2,220 Lombard shares trade today at the 2010 low of €2.85. Recently the Bank announced the admission of 479,111 new shares to the Official List as a result of the scrip dividend issue. The take-up represents an acceptance rate of 62.9% resulting in an increased total number of shares in issue to 36,092,692 shares.
  • A single trade of 800 FIMBank shares transacted at the US$1.09 level, unchanged from the previous closing price. Best bids still in the market at US$1.08 whilst other offers unsatisfied at the last traded price.
  • GO also traded unchanged at €2.12 across three trades amounting to only 3,800 shares. The telecoms Group held its Annual General meeting earlier this week during which the shareholders approved all the items on the agenda including a net dividend of €0.10 per share. This dividend is expected to be paid tomorrow.
  • Simonds Farsons Cisk plc recently announced a new €15 million 6% bond issue maturing between 2017 and 2020. This bond will primarily be used to finance the early redemption of the outstanding €9.3 million 6.6% bonds. The balance of the proceeds will be used for the general funding purposes of the Group including a €14 million investment in a new brewhouse and water treatment plant. Following the completion of this project the Mriehel façade will be released for re-development. The Farsons Group will be giving preferential allocation to existing bondholders who exchange their bonds for the new bonds. Further details and prospectus available here.
  • Eden Finance plc is also issuing a new 10-year bond. Eden will be issuing a €15 million 6.6% Bond maturing between 2017 and 2020. The proceeds will be mainly used to finance the redemption of the outstanding 6.7% Bonds. Existing bondholders will be given preferential allocation if they surrender their existing holding in favour of an equivalent amount of the new Bonds. Further details available here.
  • Statistics of the amounts raised by the Treasury with respect to the 3 new Malta Government Stocks are expected to be published late tomorrow afternoon subsequent to the closure of the tendering process at noon.