The MSE Equity Price Index on Thursday rose for the third day in succession as it climbed by 0.3% to 4,178.469 points. Gains in FIMBank, Medserv and Tigne Mall outweighed the declines in MIA, MPC, GO, and Harvest whilst five other equities ended the day unchanged. Meanwhile, trading activity eased to €0.39 million from a 9-month high of €0.95 million registered yesterday.
Medserv plc rose by nearly 3% to the €0.70 level as 25,000 shares changed hands.
Thursday's best performing equity, FIMBank plc, surged by 9.6% to the USD0.515 level across 75,000 shares – its highest closing price since 12 March 2020.
Similarly, Tigné Mall plc climbed by 4% to a 5-week high of €0.78 across 10,000 shares.
Elsewhere, Malta International Airport plc lost 0.8% as it eased to the €6.15 level across 10,946 shares.
Malta Properties Company plc fell by 3.8% as it returned to the €0.50 level across 23,173 shares.
GO plc shed 1.1% to the €3.50 level as 5,821 shares changed hands.
A single trade of trivial volumes forced Harvest Technology plc 1.4% lower as it closed at the €1.45 level.
In the same sector, BMIT Technologies plc traded flat at the €0.48 level on continued elevated volumes of 61,490 shares.
In the banking sector, Bank of Valletta plc held onto the €1.02 level across 127,853 shares whilst HSBC Bank Malta plc also closed unchanged at the €0.945 level across 10,000 shares.
PG plc remained rooted to the €2.00 level as 10,000 shares changed hands.
RS2 Software plc closed unchanged at the €2.06 level across 17,180 shares after recovering from an intraday low of €2.04 (-1%).
The RF MGS Index posted its sharpest decline in over 2 weeks as it slipped by 0.18% to 1,132.775 points. Today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s team announced that conditional on the European Medicines Agency authorising the use of the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine next Monday 21 December, Covid-19 inoculations will begin on 27 December across the EU.
On the Brexit front, market sentiment was also raised when EU's chief negotiator said that there had been good progress in trade talks with Britain that aim to prevent a turbulent finale to the Brexit crisis in two weeks' time. Meanwhile, in the US, yesterday evening congressional leaders closed in on a USD900 billion stimulus package agreement which would include direct payments to individuals.