The MSE Equity Price Index started the week on a strong footing as it jumped by 2.3% to 4,018.364 points. The gains in 9 equities outweighed the declines in BMIT, Medserv, Mapfre, RS2 and Trident, whilst GO, Harvest and Farsons all closed unchanged. Meanwhile, trading activity continued to improve as it rose to €0.54 million from €0.17 million last Friday.
In the retail banking sector, HSBC Bank Malta plc climbed to a 7-week high as it added 7.4% to the €0.945 level across 33,146 shares whilst Bank of Valletta plc rose by 1.5% to the €0.944 level as 29,512 shares changed hands.
Meanwhile, Monday's best performing equity was FIMBank plc which soared by just over 22% to the USD0.44 level across 7,000 shares.
International Hotel Investments plc partially recovered from last week’s sharp decline as the equity added 6.3% to the €0.67 level across 9,200 shares.
Also among the large companies by market cap, Malta International Airport plc broke out of its tight trading range as it rose by 1.6% to a fresh 1-month high at the €6.20 level.
PG plc rose by 2% as it recaptured the €2.04 level across 20,000 shares.
In the property sector, Malta Properties Company plc added 3.8% as it recaptured the €0.54 level across 105,071 shares whilst Malita Investments plc added 2.3% to the €0.90 level on volumes of 18,872 shares. Similarly, MIDI plc rose to a 3-week high as it surged by 8.2% to the €0.422 level across 6,750 shares whilst Tigné Mall plc climbed 3.9% to regain the €0.80 level across 5,500 shares. On the other hand, Trident Estates plc eased by 1.4% to the €1.45 level across trivial volumes.
Elsewhere, GO plc recovered from an intra-day low of €3.32 (-3.5%) to close unchanged at the €3.44 as 3,505 shares changed hands whilst Simonds Farsons Cisk plc traded flat at the €8.00 level across 2,382 shares.
In the IT services sector, BMIT Technologies plc slipped by 2% as it returned to the €0.48 level across heightened activity of 505,000 shares. Similarly, RS2 Software plc eased by just under 2% as it returned to €2.00 level across 9,500 shares. Meanwhile, Harvest Technology plc traded flat at the €1.48 level across insignificant volumes.
A single trade of just 400 shares in Mapfre Middlesea plc forced the equity 2.6% lower to the €2.22 level.
Medserv plc was today’s worst-performing equity as it plunged by 17% to a near 2-month low to €0.61 across 18,872 shares.
The RF MGS Index resumed its negative trend as it shed 0.16% to a near 12-week low at 1,121.704 points. Euro sovereign bond yields moved higher today as investors remained focused on the positive progress being made with respect to the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine across Europe. On the other hand, the South African government announced yesterday that it will be halting the AstraZeneca vaccination from its
vaccination program after a small study revealed that the vaccine offered little protection against the country’s dominant coronavirus variant. Vaccine makers have already started developing second-generation coronavirus vaccines aimed at targeting such variants of the virus with experts expecting the necessary tweaks to existing vaccines to take a matter of six weeks to cover mutations.