In contrast to the very high trading activity last week, volumes across the equity market remained low for the third successive day with only €184,000 worth of shares changing hands.
Despite this, the share index closed marginally higher at 4,220.747 points as the gains in HSBC offset the marginal declines in GO and Malita.
HSBC was the only positive performer of the day with a 0.8 per cent rise to €1.84 on total activity of 12,393 shares. Last Monday, HSBC Malta published its 2015 interim results revealing a 6.8 per cent drop in profitability to €23.9 million during the first six months of 2015.
The improvement achieved on the income side, largely relating to lower interest expense and the fees generated from the newly transferred insurance portfolio, was offset by higher costs (mainly linked to regulatory and compliance factors) as well as increased impairment charges.
The bank declared a gross interim dividend of 5c1 per share (to all shareholders as at the close of trading on August 12) representing a 25.9 per cent increase over the adjusted interim gross dividend declared with respect to the first six months of 2014. The difference in dividend is attributable to a lower...
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