Local weekly round-up 24th – 28th April 2006

The MSE share index moved up 1.9% this week where it registered gains for the first two successive sessions and then slid downwards in the subsequent sessions.  This week’s leading equity was Middlesea Insurance plc where ahead of Friday’s full-year results, a sustained demand was evident throughout this week contributing to a 3.67% increase in the share value.  Investors were also willing to place buying orders for Bank of Valletta shares in anticipation of Thursday’s publication of the half-year results and interim dividends which resulted to be positive however on Friday throughout the session, selling pressure took place which forced the price to settle lower at Lm4.81c9 and yet the equity still recorded an overall weekly gain of 3.41%.  Other gains were registered by Maltacom plc, Datatrak and IHI as prices of the respective shares have gone up by 1.54%, 3.33% and 0.11% during this week.  As for HSBC equity, investors were interested to cash in profits resulting in a weekly loss of 1.76%.  FIM Bank and MIA also suffered losses of 1.87% and 3.43% respectively.   Lombard Bank, Suncrest Hotels and Plaza equities recorded no changes in their share price.