The MSE Equity Price Index on Thursday remained practically unchanged at 3,747.087 points as seven equities closed the session unchanged, with only MIA ending the session lower.
HSBC Bank Malta plc held the €1.25 level after it rebounded from an intraday low of €1.22 (-2.40%) across three trades totalling 14,350 shares. On Tuesday, HSBC Malta published a Quarterly Update providing information about its performance in Q1 2023 when compared to the same period in 2022. In this respect, HSBC reported a profit before tax of €26.5 million which is a significant rise from the €4.8 million profit reported in Q1 2022. The surge in profitability was attributed to a boost in net interest income as well as the enhanced credit quality of the bank’s loan book.
Bank of Valletta plc closed unchanged at the €1.19 level after recovering from an intraday low of €1.18 (-0.8%) as 23,280 shares exchanged hands.
Also within the banking sector, APS Bank plc traded flat at the €0.62 level across six deals totalling 4,080 shares. Yesterday, the Malta Stock Exchange announced that 9,894,985 new APS Bank plc ordinary shares were admitted to the Official List of the Malta Stock Exchange following the recent scrip dividend issue at an attribution price of €0.57 per share, representing a high take-up of over 88%. Following this scrip dividend, the total number of shares in issue increased to 376,812,153 shares.
A single deal of 3,549 shares left the share price of Mapfre Middlesea plc at the €1.50 level.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc remained at the €7.15 level on three deals totalling 175 shares. Farsons is holding its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 15 June.
Within the property sector, Malita Investments plc (18,886 shares) and Malta Properties Company plc (285 shares) maintained the €0.63 and €0.40 levels respectively.
Malta International Airport plc retracted back to the €5.55 level (-0.9%) on a single trade of 265 shares.
On Wednesday, PG plc announced that its board of directors is scheduled to meet on Tuesday 23 June 2023 to consider the distribution of an interim dividend.
The RF MGS Index decreased by 0.24% to 877.223 points. Within the Euro Area, the seasonally adjusted unemployment in April was in line with market expectations as it fell to 6.5%. Meanwhile, a flash estimate published by Eurostat showed that inflation within the eurozone fell to 6.1% in May, the lowest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. ECB president Christine Lagarde stated that the ECB is likely to further increase interest rates but at a lower pace and hoped to address the uncertainty of future rate hikes. Ms Lagarde cautioned that there is no clear evidence that underlying inflation has peaked.
On Thursday, Mediterranean Investments Holding plc announced that it received regulatory approval for the issue of €20 million 5.85% unsecured bonds maturing in 2028. The issuer will be giving preference to the holders of the 5.5% unsecured bonds due for redemption on 31 July 2023. The prospectus dated 1 June 2023 that includes the full details of the bond issue will be made available on 5 June 2023.
Meanwhile, within an updated Financial Analysis Summary published on Thursday, Gap Group plc stated that apart from the redemption of the outstanding €8.35 million 4.25% secured bonds maturing in October 2023, Gap Group has the intention of exercising the early redemption option for the outstanding €16.6 million 3.70% secured bonds 2023/25 on the first early redemption date, that is 18 December 2023.