MSE Equity Price Index surges over 2% on final day of 2019

 

The MSE Equity Price Index added 2.21% during the final trading day of 2019 to close the year at 4,714.165 points, representing a yearly increase of 4.43%. Trading activity was spread across eight equities today, with six trending higher whilst another two companies closed unchanged. Volumes remained weak as only €0.07 million worth of shares changed hands. Download today’s Equity Market Summary.

The best performing equity today was HSBC Bank Malta plc as it rallied by just over 10% to €1.30 albeit on trivial volumes.

Also among the large companies, International Hotel Investments plc added almost 8% to €0.83 on volumes of 25,000 shares.

GO plc advanced by 2.4% to the €4.26 level across 1,000 shares.

GO’s data centre subsidiary – BMIT Technologies plc – recaptured the €0.52 level (+3%) across 17,250 shares.

Three deals totaling 4,567 shares lifted the equity of MaltaPost plc 0.8% higher to the €1.31 level.

In the property segment, MIDI plc surged 8% to regain the €0.54 level across 49,399 shares.

On the other hand, Trident Estates plc remained at the €1.55 level on a single deal of 3,800 shares.

Bank of Valletta plc also traded flat at €1.06 on a total of 4,524 shares.

Last Friday, RS2 Software plc issued a detailed Interim Directors’ Statement updating the market on its business development initiatives during 2019 as well as an explanation of the strategy going forward. In this respect, RS2 noted that during the past twelve months, the company continued to build on the success of the previous year in terms of regional and business expansion. More specifically, RS2 executed strategic milestones to increase its customer base and diversify its businesses in Europe and globally covering various industries. Moreover, the implementation and deployment of significant customers of RS2 Smart Processing Ltd (which is the transaction processing services arm of RS2) is in the final stages to launch services in early 2020. Meanwhile, RS2 is obtaining its financial institution licence from the German regulator which is expected to be issued during mid-2020. In North America, RS2’s subsidiary, RS2 Software Inc. is now offering a global, complete and modern cloud-based processing platform for any form of payment and is also in the final stages of signing several agreements in different industries in the US.

The RF MGS Index trended slightly lower today to end the year at 1,141.564 points, representing a yearly uplift of 4.38% following the declines registered in the previous two years. The gains in the prices of Malta Government Stocks in 2019 took place as both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank adopted a more accommodative stance towards monetary policy compared to the steps taken last year to normalise interest rates. Furthermore, movements across international financial markets were driven by a number of geo-political uncertainties as well as trade concerns between the US and China.

Trading on the Malta Stock Exchange will resume on Friday 3 January 2020.