The MSE Equity Price Index opened the week in negative territory as it slipped by a further 0.4% to a fresh multi-year low of 3,537.068 points.
The drop was due to the sharp fall in the share price of GO which was partly offset by the gains in BOV and Harvest. Meanwhile, MIA, RS2 and Mapfre Middlesea closed the day unchanged as most of Monday's activity took place in the equity of RS2.
GO plc tumbled 6.3% to an over four-year low of €3.00 across 12,194 shares. Also among the large companies by market capitalisation, RS2 Software plc traded flat at the €2.20 level on a total of 53,718 shares having a market value of €0.12 million.
Malta International Airport plc retained its six-month low of €4.60 across 2,465 shares. Mapfre Middlesea plc also finished unchanged at the €2.00 level albeit on just 1,000 shares.
Meanwhile, Bank of Valletta plc added 1.2% to regain the €0.87 level across 1,807 shares. Harvest Technology plc moved 1.4% higher back to the €1.47 level on trivial volumes. The RF MGS Index rose 0.09% to a five-month high of 1,114.627 points as various uncertainties continued to dominate movements across international financial markets including the progress and timing of a coronavirus vaccine, the passage of new fiscal stimulus measures in the US, as well as the state of economic recovery across the world.
Meanwhile, US investment bank Goldman Sachs issued a note saying that it is expecting the European Central Bank to boost its pandemic bond-buying programme by €400 billion in December. The bank also said that the ECB will likely extend the emergency asset purchase operation by six months through the end of 2021 and may also target high-yield (i.e. sub-investment grade) bonds for its purchases.