The MSE Equity Total Return Index managed to recover some lost ground during this four-day trading week, as it closed 1.7% higher at 8,183.486 points. A total of 20 equities were active, nine of which registered gains while another seven closed in the red.
Total weekly turnover declined by almost half compared to last week, as €0.9 million was traded across 168 transactions.
HSBC Bank Malta plc was up by 8%, as it closed at €0.95 – translating into a €0.07 increase. A total of 21 deals involving 95,030 shares were executed, generating a total weekly turnover of €88,615. On a year-to-date basis, the equity is up by 5.6%.
This week’s top performance was recorded by FIMBank plc, as the share price of the banking equity registered a double-digit gain of 22.2%. Four deals involving 7,000 shares pushed the price to $0.44.
The MSE Equity Price Index trended lower for the second consecutive session on Thursday, with a marginal decline of 0.03% to 3,990.067 points as MIA, HSBC and H
The MSE Equity Total Return Index ended the week 0.5% higher at 8,255.308 points. Out of 15 active issues, five headed north while another four closed in the opposite direction.
A total weekly turnover of €0.5 million was generated across 97 transactions.
This week was the last trading week for January, during which the local equities index declined by 2.6%.
Various equities from different sectors declined, however both LifeStar Holding plc and Malta Properties Company plc (MPC) gained 10%.
The most liquid equity was Bank of Valletta plc, generating a total weekly turnover of €166,406. It started off the week on a positive note and traded 0.2% higher, but failed to sustain the gain by end of week, closing at the €0.94 price mark – equivalent to a 0.8% decline over the previous week.
During the course of 2020, Malta’s corporate bond market was naturally severely impacted by the pandemic. As I highlighted in some articles over the past few months, during the start of the pandemic in early March 2020, there were double-digit declines in the prices of various corporate bonds as a result of the understandable huge concern among retail investors about the unprecedented circumstances that were being experienced.
However, following the sharp sell-off, investor sentiment somewhat improved and many corporate bond prices recovered with some bonds also trading back up above their par value during the second half of the year. On the other hand, though, other bonds still remain below their par value with the clear outlier being Melite Finance plc which last traded at 80 per cent due to the huge negative impact on their business in Italy and the bond restructuring plans which were initially outlined in the 2019 Annual Report published on June 30, 2020.
The MSE Equity Total Return Index registered a further 1.4% decline, as losses in the opening and closing sessions were enough to outweigh the gains in the other three sessions. The local equities’ index ended the week at 8,241.788 points.
A total of 19 equities were active, three of which headed north, while another 10 closed in the opposite direction.
A total weekly turnover of €0.8 million was generated over 152 deals.
BMIT Technologies plc was the most liquid equity, as it registered a total turnover of €161,511 during the week.
The equity started off the week on a positive note, as it reached €0.49 but did not manage to sustain the gain, as it closed flat at €0.48 yesterday.