The MSE Equity Price Index on Tuesday erased most of Monday's decline as it rebounded by 0.2% to 4,657.910 points.

The gains in four companies outweighed the 0.5% drop in BOV whilst a further four shares closed the day unchanged.

Trading activity was encouraging as €0.4 million worth of shares changed hands, once again on the back of strong volumes in RS2.

RS2 Software plc closed unchanged at the €2.34 level after temporarily recording a new all-time high of €2.36 (+0.9%).

A total of 112,290 shares traded having a market value of €0.26 million and representing 66% of the total value of equities traded. Last week, RS2 announced the acquisition of Kalicom which is one of the most successful commercial network operators for electronic, card-based payment systems in Germany.

Also among the large companies, three deals totalling 2,920 shares left the equity of Malta International Airport plc at the €6.95 level. The airport operator is soon expected to publish its traffic forecast for 2020. GO plc stayed at its near three-month low of €4.12 on trivial volumes. Similarly, BMIT Technologies plc traded unchanged at the €0.51 level across 51,000 shares. Bank of Valletta plc moved back to the €1.06 level (-0.5%) across 22,354 shares. Meanwhile, PG plc added 1.1% to regain the €1.84 level on activity totalling 13,005 shares. Four deals totalling 46,300 shares lifted the equity of Malta Properties Company plc 0.8% higher to €0.63.

The best performing equities today were Simonds Farsons Cisk plc and GlobalCapital plc which surged by 2.7% and 7.1% to €11.40 and €0.30 respectively albeit on insignificant volumes.

The RF MGS Index slipped by 0.18% to a seven-month low as sovereign euro bond yields crept higher amid further signs of easing of tensions between the US and China.

In this respect, and ahead of the two countries signing a ‘Phase One’ trade agreement, the US Treasury noted that it would no longer label China a “currency manipulator”. Elsewhere, in Europe, ECB Executive Board Member  Yves Mersch opined that economic growth and inflation in the euro area are showing "good signs of stabilization".

On the other hand, speculation of an imminent interest-rate cut by the Bank of England increased after the UK’s economy contracted by more than expected in November 2019 when compared to the previous month, and by the most since April 2019. Furthermore, although UK’s GDP grew by 0.6% when compared to November 2018, the increase was the slowest rate in over six years. www.rizzofarrugia.com

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