The MSE Equity Price Index trended lower for the second consecutive session on Thursday, with a marginal decline of 0.03% to 3,990.067 points as MIA, HSBC and Harvest Technology trended lower offsetting uplifts registered in Mapfre Middlesea, Malta Properties and Trident Estates. Trading activity amounted to €0.14 million.
Malta International Airport plc shed a further 0.8% to the €6.00 level for the first time since late November 2020 after failing to hold on to an intra-day high of €6.10. A total of 15,192 shares changed hands today. The airport operator is scheduled to publish its 2020 full-year results on Wednesday, February 24.
Similarly, HSBC Bank Malta plc ended today’s session in negative territory with a 0.5% drop to €0.94 after only partially rebounding from an intra-day low of €0.935 across a total of 36,884 shares. The Bank is scheduled to publish its 2020 full-year results on Tuesday 23 February.
The only other negative performing equity today was Harvest Technology plc with a 0.7% decline back to the €1.47 level on a single trade of 6,850 shares.
On the other hand, Malta Properties Company plc edged 3.7% higher to recapture the €0.56 level for time since early August 2020. Nonetheless, trading activity was weak with only 3,500 shares exchanged during today’s session.
A single trade comprising 1,000 shares of Mapfre Middlesea plc was executed at the €2.24 level representing a 0.9% increase from the previous closing price.
Likewise, Trident Estates plc shares edged 1.4% higher to regain the €1.47 level albeit on shallow volumes of 2,917 shares.
Meanwhile, RS2 Software plc ended unchanged at the €1.98 level on just 39 shares. This afternoon, RS2 announced that its board of directors authorised the submission of an application for Authorisation for Admissibility to Listing to the Listing Authority requesting the approval of a prospectus in relation to the issuance of up to 28,571,400 preference shares. Further details on this share issue will be announced in due course.
LifeStar Holding plc also announced that the process for the listing, IPO and exchange offer of its subsidiary LifeStar Insurance Limited (formerly GlobalCapital Life Insurance Limited) is well underway and an advanced draft of the prospectus for the IPO and exchange offer has been submitted to the MFSA for review. The equity was inactive during this morning’s trading session.
The RF MGS Index continued to rebound from a near 12-week low of 1,121.704 points registered on Monday as it gained a further 0.14% to 1,124.128 points. According to the European Commission’s Winter forecasts which were released earlier on Thursday, Malta’s economy is forecasted to grow by 4.5% in 2021 (Autumn 2020 Forecast: 3%) and by an additional 5.4% in 2022 (Autumn 2020 Forecast: 6.2%). The return to growth comes on the back of a severe contraction in 2020 whereby the Maltese economy shrunk by 9% (Autumn 2020 Forecast: -7.3%) as a result of the adverse economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak which were only partially mitigated by government stimulus measures.
Meanwhile, at a Eurozone level, following a 6.8% contraction in 2020 (Autumn 2020 Forecasts: -7.8%), the EC is projecting growth of 3.8% in 2021 and the same in 2022, compared with Autumn 2020 forecasts of a 4.2% expansion in 2021 and a 3% growth in 2022.