GO plc shares reach nine month high
MSE Trading Report for week ending February 17, 2017
After a choppy start to the week, the MSE Indexgained 0.15 per cent overall, to close the week at 4,741.747 points. Trading in the equity market was spread across 18 equities of which gainers amounted to eight, four lost ground while the remaining six closed unchanged. Total turnover surpassed the €1.9m mark.
GO plcshares registered the second highest gain for the week as its price ticked two per cent higher, to close at €3.499 – a fresh nine month high for the equity. This positive result was achieved over 24 trades worth €237,000 in total – the third highest value traded for the week. On Tuesday, the company announced that its Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on February 21, 2017 to approve the financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2016 and to consider the declaration of a final dividend to be recommended to the company’s Annual General Meeting.
Malta International Airport plcshares headed the list of gainers registering a gain of almost 3 per cent, spread across 12 deals of 21,284 shares. The price at the end of the final trading session for the week read €4.151 – a fresh 16-week high.
Trading in the banking industry yielded different results. Bank of Valletta plc shares gained a mere 0.1 per cent, closing at €2.191 following 87 deals worth more than half a million Euro in total. FIMBank plcshares also experienced a 0.6 per cent price appreciation over 10 trades of 91,142 shares. The closing price for this equity settled at $0.895.
On the contrary, HSBC Bank Malta plcshares experienced a 0.5 per cent decline in price. A total of 45 transactions worth €308,000 led its share price to the €2.049 level ahead of the announcement of the bank’s results for the year ending December 31, 2016 due next Tuesday.
Lombard Bank Malta plcwas the only banking equity which closed unchanged following a single trade of 20,000 shares executed at €2.24.
Shares of RS2 Software plc(RS2) and MaltaPost plcregistered fresh lows as a result of negative weekly trading performances. The former declined by 3.7 per cent, spread over 24 deals of 93,124 shares, to settle at €1.699 while the latter fell by 1.9 per cent, to close at €2, following thin trading.
Five transactions worth €45,763 in Simonds Farsons Cisk plcshares pushed the price up by 1.4 per cent to again reach its all-time high of €7.30.
Prior to trading on Friday, Mapfre Middlesea plcannounced that the forthcoming Annual General Meeting will be held on April 21, 2017. This announcement coincided with an overall positive week for the equity as it appreciated by 0.5 per cent, to close at €2.23 albeit on thin volumes.
Trading volumes which failed to surpass the €10,000 mark were witnessed in Tigne Mall plcand Malta Properties Company plc resulting in differing performances. The share price of Tigne Mall plc gained 0.8 per cent, to close at €1.13, while that of Malta Properties Company plc declined by 2.2 per cent closing at the €0.54 price tag.
Medserv plcshares were traded twice as the equity appreciated by 0.1 per cent, to close at €1.60. The combined value of these two trades amounted to €44,000.
Both Malita Investments plcand Plaza Centres plcissued announcements during the week related to the approval of the respective audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2016. More specifically, on Tuesday, Malita Investments plc announced that the Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on February 28, 2017 to consider and approve the Company’s Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31, 2016. The board will also consider the declaration of a final dividend to be recommended at the Company’s Annual General Meeting. On the other hand, on Monday, Plaza Centres plc announced that the Board of Directors is scheduled to meet on March 9, 2017 to consider and approve the Company’s Audited Financial Statements for the financial year ended December 31 2016. The company will also consider whether to declare and recommend the payment of a dividend to shareholders at the Company’s Annual General Meeting.
These announcements failed to have any impact on the respective prices of these equities despite being active this week.
Other active equities which failed to experience any changes in price were International Hotels Investments plc, Global Capital plcand MIDI plc.
Both in the sovereign debtmarket and in the corporate bondmarket, performance was predominantly negative. Total trading in corporate bond issues amounted to almost €1.8m spread over 32 issues. Nine of these closed higher, 14 depreciated while the remaining nine closed unchanged.
Trading in sovereign bond issues witnessed 17 of the 26 active issues close in the red while nine appreciated. The 2.1% MGS 2039outperformed its peers as it registered a 2 per cent increase in price closing at €98.50. Total turnover in this market exceeded €6.3m.