The MSE Equity Price Index opened this shortened week in positive territory as it rebounded by 0.65% (the sharpest daily uplift in over two weeks) to 3,671.697 points on Monday, albeit on light trading activity amounting to just €0.05 million.
The gains in MIA, HSBC, Mapfre Middlesea and Trident outweighed the declines in four other equities (including BOV, RS2 and Farsons) whilst MPC and MaltaPost closed the day unchanged.
No trading will take place on Tuesday, due to a national holiday.
Malta International Airport plc added 2.9% to regain the €4.98 level across 1,000 shares. HSBC Bank Malta plc and Mapfre Middlesea plc climbed 1.3% and 11.1% higher to €0.81 and €2.00 respectively albeit on trivial volumes. Two deals totalling 700 shares lifted the equity of Trident Estates plc 3.4% higher to €1.53.
Trident is due to publish its interim financial results on 16 September. Within the same sector, Malta Properties Company plc maintained the €0.51 level across 10,000 shares.
Likewise, MaltaPost plc retained the €1.05 level on a single deal of 3,000 shares. Meanwhile, Medserv plc eased by 0.8% to the €0.615 level across 2,250 shares.
Medserv announced that it has been awarded a contract extension by Eni Egypt to continue providing integrated logistics support services for offshore operations in Egypt until 31 December 2021.
Medserv noted that the Eastern Mediterranean energy block is a significant and growing market for the company given its strong presence in both Cyprus and Egypt. Furthermore, Medserv is also awaiting adjudication of a tender for provision of integrated logistics support services to another international oil company operating offshore Egypt.
Bank of Valletta plc was the worst-performing equity today with a drop of 1.1% to the €0.89 level across 7,904 shares. Last week, BOV announced that it settled a claim of an alleged amount of over €71 million by the Swedish Pension Agency (the sole investor in the Falcon Fund SICAV) for €26.5 million.
The bank added that the settlement arrangements of €26.5 million will not result in it incurring a loss in excess of what has already been provided for, with also some release back to its income statement expected in due course. As a result of this latest development, the bank’s total provisions for all contingent liabilities will also be reduced significantly once the transaction is completed.
RS2 Software plc moved back to the €2.24 level (-0.9%) across 6,969 shares.
Simonds Farsons Cisk plc lost 0.7% to the €7.40 level on a total of 1,483 shares. Farsons is due to publish its interim financial results on 23 September.
The RF MGS Index erased most of the gains recorded in the previous two days as it slid by 0.31% to 1,105.097 points. The sharp drop in MGS prices followed a rebound in eurozone sovereign bond yields as these trended higher after a marked surge in volatility across international financial markets at the end of last week.
On the political front, prospects of the EU and the UK reaching a compromise on trade (and thus avoid a hard Brexit) worsened considerably after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, indicated that the EU cannot accommodate the UK in sensitive areas including fisheries and state aid rules.
Furthermore, speculation arose that the UK is drafting new legislation that would tear down the EU Withdrawal Agreement governing the current transition period, and that a trade deal has to be concluded by mid-October 2020 rather than by the end of the year. www.rizzofarrugia.com