MSE Equity Price Index posts 3-day negative streak

 

The MSE Equity Price Index moved lower for the third consecutive day as it fell by a further 0.75% to 4,820.204 points. The drop was mostly due to the sharp declines in Farsons, IHI and FIMBank which, coupled with the negative performances of three other equities, outweighed the gains in BOV, HSBC and BMIT. Meanwhile, six other equities closed the day unchanged whilst overall trading activity remained subdued as only €0.15 million worth of shares changed hands. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

International Hotel Investments plc shed 3.4% to the €0.86 level across 8,625 shares. Tomorrow, the equity turns ex-dividend.

Simonds Farsons Cisk plc and FIMBank plc also suffered declines of more than 3% to the €10.00 and USD0.59 levels respectively albeit on trivial volumes.

RS2 Software plc eased by 1.3% from its twenty-month high of €1.49 back to the €1.47 level across 18,000 shares.

Loqus Holdings plc plummeted by just over 22% to €0.07 on 83,400 shares.

In the property segment, Trident Estates plc erased some of its recent gains as the equity slipped by 0.5% to €1.94 on low volumes of 1,000 shares.

Low trading activity also took place in Malta Properties Company plc which held on to the €0.66 level on 500 shares.

Malta International Airport plc maintained the €7.20 level after recovering from an intra-day low of €7.05 (-2.1%). A total of 5,496 shares traded.

A single deal of just 324 shares left the equity of GO plc at its eight-week high of €4.58.

Small volumes were also transacted in Mapfre Middlesea plc (€2.00), PG plc (€1.64) and Santumas Shareholdings plc (€1.65) all of which ended the day unchanged.

Meanwhile, the two largest banks – Bank of Valletta plc and HSBC Bank Malta plc – both trended minimally higher today. BOV added 0.4% to the €1.195 level across 20,020 shares whilst HSBC regained the €1.63 level (+0.6%) on trivial activity. This morning, HSBC announced that its Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on 5 August to consider and approve the interim financial statements for the six-month period ended 30 June 2019. The Directors will also consider the declaration of an interim dividend.

BMIT Technologies plc went up by 0.9% to recapture the €0.535 level across 56,800 shares.

The RF MGS Index reached a new high since mid-January 2017 as it added a further 0.08% to 1,140.499 points. Euro bond yields were lower today despite indications that the US and China might reach an agreement over trade in the coming days.