MSE Equity Price Index falls below the 4,600 mark

 

Following last Friday’s decline of 0.87% which was the sharpest since the start of September 2019, the MSE Equity Price Index retracted by a further 0.32% today to an over nine-month low of 4,587.317 points. The drop in the local equity index reflected the negative performances of FIMBank, BMIT and PG. On the other hand, four other companies ended unchanged as trading volumes remained subdued with only €0.14 million of shares changing hands. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

FIMBank plc shed 3.2% to the USD0.60 level across 17,378 shares.

BMIT Technologies plc lost almost 2% to the €0.505 level on activity totaling 28,700 shares.

A single deal of 8,000 shares forced the equity of PG plc to move 1.6% lower back to the €1.80 level. Last week, PG published its interim financial results whereby the company reported a substantial increase in profitability due to the continued growth in the supermarkets operations as well as the full six-month contribution from the enlarged ZARA store in Sliema. Going forward, the directors stated that they are cautiously optimistic that PG will also deliver positive results in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta plc (37,683 shares) and GO plc (5,000 shares) ended the day unchanged at €1.04 and €4.16 respectively. Last week, BOV stated that it will be delaying the issuance of new additional Tier 1 Capital to 2020. Moreover, the bank noted that the Court of Appeal upheld its appeals in a number of cases involving the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund. BOV also informed the market that a number of other cases are yet to be decided.

Similarly, Malta International Airport plc traded flat at €6.90 on a total of 4,500 shares.

MaltaPost plc retained the €1.30 level across 7,775 shares. Last Friday, the postal operator published its financial results for the year ended 30 September 2019. MaltaPost reported a 12.9% increase in profit after tax to €1.95 million on the back of an improved operational performance. Nonetheless, the Directors declared an unchanged net dividend of €0.04 per share. The dividend is payable on 20 March 2020 to all shareholders as at close of trading on 23 January 2020. MaltaPost will also be holdings its AGM on 26 February 2020.

Last Friday, 1923 Investments plc announced that it received applications for a total of 6,846,700 shares for the 9,112,256 shares on offer in Harvest Technology plc. As a result, all applications were allocated in full. The shares are expected to be admitted to the Official List of the MSE on 6 January 2020 whilst trading in the shares is expected as from 7 January 2020.

Today, Santumas Shareholdings plc issued its financial results for the six-month period ended 31 October 2019. The company reported a marginal post-tax loss of €0.06 million largely reflecting decreases in the fair value of its financial assets.

The RF MGS Index trended higher for the first time in three days as it rebounded by 0.11% to 1,144.253 points. Prices of Malta Government Stocks moved mostly higher despite persistent investor optimism across international financial markets.