The local equity market wrapped up a dismal week with a sixth consecutive drop on persistent concerns by investors as the political unrest in Libya persist.

While international markets recovered today with the Nikkei 225 in Asia rising 0.7 per cent and the FTSE 100 up one per cent at the time of writing, the MSE Share Index shed another 0.5 per cent to 3,609.639 points mainly on the back of further declines in the share prices of the two large banks.

HSBC Bank Malta plc slid a further 0.7 per cent this morning to the €2.98 level on volumes of 24,570 shares.

During the past five trading sessions, the equity plunged 13.6 per cent, ranking as the worst performer this week despite trading with the entitlement to the final gross dividend of €0.07,7 per share.

Bank of Valletta plc also closed in the red with a decline of 0.1 per cent to the €2.99 level on volumes of 16,271. BOV’s equity dropped 0.3 per cent this week.

Also in the financial sector, Middlesea Insurance plc slipped 3.8 per cent to the €1.01 level on low volumes of 4,572 shares. The company is scheduled to publish its 2010 full-year results on March 14.

Selling pressure in the equity market also spread to MaltaPost plc as the share price of the postal operator retreated by five per cent to the €1.04 level on volumes of 7,022 shares.

Recently MaltaPost announced that since October 1, the company’s financial performance was slightly below that of the corresponding period last year whilst conditions in the market place continued to follow the trends already well-established.

RS2 Software plc also lost ground as the equity slumped 11.1 per cent to a new all-time low of €0.40 across two trades totalling 4,500 shares.

Meanwhile a single trade of 13,000 Crimsonwing plc shares was transacted at €0.37,9, representing a 1.1 per cent rise over the previous close.

The sell-off across local corporate bonds continued today with the highest decline in the 7.5 per cent Mediterranean Investments Holding plc 2015 which slumped 11 percentage points to the 90 per cent level.

Similarly the 6.25 per cent International Hotel Investments plc 2019 slipped 10 percentage points to 90 per cent.

The Rizzo Farrugia MGS Index dropped 0.2 per cent to the 982.561 points as the benchmark Eurozone yields recouped the 3.17 per cent level and MGS prices dropped.

Next week, Plaza Centres plc and FIMBank plc will be issuing their 2010 full-year results.

www.rizzofarrugia.com