Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/635436
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 3 FEBRUARY 2016 12 Regular market closed – 2/2/2016 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change ▲ BOV 39,708 88,872.440 14 2.240 2.235 2.240 2.240 0.005 ▼ FIM 161,325 96,885.000 6 0.606 0.600 0.606 0.600 -0.030 ▼ GO 560 1,786.400 1 3.190 3.190 3.190 3.190 -0.010 ● HSB 49,687 85,951.110 10 1.740 1.715 1.740 1.730 0.000 ▲ MDS 10,000 16,482.150 4 1.650 1.645 1.645 1.650 0.005 ▲ MIA 10,915 47,462.050 7 4.350 4.340 4.340 4.350 0.020 ▲ MPC 12,000 6,840.000 1 0.570 0.570 0.570 0.570 0.020 ● RS2 1,910 6,255.250 3 3.275 3.275 3.275 3.275 0.000 ● SFC 696 4,176.000 2 6.000 6.000 6.000 6.000 0.000 ▼ G16B 30,416 31,541.390 1 103.700 103.700 103.700 103.700 -0.200 ▲ G20B 20,000 23,640.000 1 118.200 118.200 118.200 118.200 0.130 ▼ G28B 30,000 39,822.000 1 132.740 132.740 132.740 132.740 -0.640 ▼ G29A 1,500 2,109.000 1 140.600 140.600 140.600 140.600 -0.100 ▼ G29B 139,000 148,684.500 8 107.000 106.900 106.900 106.950 -0.550 ▼ G30A 5,000 7,152.500 1 143.050 143.050 143.050 143.050 -0.810 ▼ G32A 7,000 9,552.900 1 136.470 136.470 136.470 136.470 -0.800 ▼ G32B 10,000 13,370.000 1 133.700 133.700 133.700 133.700 -0.850 ▼ G33A 5,000 6,582.500 1 131.650 131.650 131.650 131.650 -0.340 ▼ G34A 160,000 205,568.000 2 128.480 128.480 128.480 128.480 -0.900 ▼ G40A 96,300 105,313.680 10 109.360 109.360 109.360 109.360 -0.890 ● BV19A 4,000 4,280.000 1 107.000 107.000 107.000 107.000 0.000 ● CF22A 20,000 21,305.000 2 106.550 106.500 106.550 106.500 0.000 ▼ HP25A 1,000 1,045.000 1 104.500 104.500 104.500 104.500 -0.500 ● IH25A 2,900 3,117.500 1 107.500 107.500 107.500 107.500 0.000 ● MD18A 10,000 10,350.000 1 103.500 103.500 103.500 103.500 0.000 ● MF24A 4,000 4,424.800 2 110.620 110.620 110.620 110.620 0.000 ● PG22A 17,500 19,775.000 2 113.000 113.000 113.000 113.000 0.000 ● TI20A 16,000 16,685.000 3 104.500 104.250 104.250 104.500 0.000 Market Summary as at February 2, 2016 Equity Offi cial List Session State ................................................................... Market Closed Number of trades ............................................................. 89 Volume Traded ................................................................. 866,417 Value of € denominated securities .................................... 932,144.170 Value of US$ denominated securities ................................ 96,885.000 Value of GBP£ denominated securities .............................. 0.000 Current Index ................................................................... 4,472.468 Previous Index ................................................................. 4,476.276 Change in Index (%) ......................................................... -0.085% 6pm Holdings plc ......................... 0.700 0.00% MaltaPost plc ................................. 1.920 0.00% Bank of Valletta plc ....................... 2.240 0.22% Medserv plc .................................. 1.650 0.30% FIMBank plc ................................. 0.600 -4.76% Mapfre Middlesea plc .................... 2.255 0.00% GlobalCapital plc .......................... 0.500 0.00% MIDI plc ........................................ 0.350 0.00% GO plc ........................................... 3.190 -0.31% Plaza Centres plc ........................... 1.000 0.00% Grand Harbour Marina plc ............. 1.030 0.00% RS2 Software plc............................ 3.275 0.00% HSBC Bank Malta plc ..................... 1.730 0.00% Simonds Farsons Cisk plc ............... 6.000 0.00% International Hotel Investments plc 0.735 0.00% Tigné Mall plc ............................... 0.960 0.00% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc ... 1.101 0.00% Pefaco International plc ................ 2.240 0.00% Lombard Bank Malta plc ............... 2.400 0.00% Santumas Shareholdings plc ........ 1.818 0.00% Malita Investments plc .................. 0.950 0.00% Malta Properties Company plc ....... 0.570 3.64% Malta International Airport plc ....... 4.350 0.46% MSE Index Business Today Inbound tourism performance reached new record heights in 2015. The Malta Tourism Authority is pleased with the results achieved in inbound tour- ism performance during the month of December 2015 and the cumulative period January to December 2015 pub- lished by the National Statistics Office today. Total inbound visitors reached 72,568 in December 2015, increasing by 5,950 or +8.9% over the corresponding month in 2014. This figure establishes a new record in inbound tourism for the month of December. Total inbound tourists (excluding overnight cruise passengers) increased by 9.6%. Tourists spent a total of 611,353 nights in December 2015; 26,089 more nights than in December 2014. Furthermore tourist spent €53.7 million in December 2015, representing an increase of 4%. Inbound tourist arrivals grew by 5.4% in 2015 to reach a total of 1.8 million. 2015 marks the sixth consecutive year of growth. Nights stayed by tourists during 2015 have gone up by 695,047 to reach 14.2 million. More importantly, the highest increase was recorded in tourist expenditure reaching the figure of €1.65 billion, €115 million more or +7.5% when compared to 2014. It is very relevant to note that the per capita expenditure increased from €905 in 2014 to €918 in 2015. In 2015, all the major source markets feature increased tourism flows with the exception of Libya and Russia. The United Kingdom recorded the highest increase in absolute terms (+38,375), followed by Italy (+26,388). Furthermore, the United States registered the highest percentage increase of 16.4% over 2014. MTA CEO Paul Bugeja stated that this latest data published by the National Statistics Office bears witness to the exceptional results achieved by our tourism industry during 2015. "We are most pleased both with the increased average spent per tourist arrival and with the higher growth rate of 9.4% recorded in the off peak months compared to the 2.7% for the peak months of summer indicating that our strategies to improve on quality tourism and at the same time reduce seasonality is bearing the desired results. " Record 1.8 million tourists visited Malta in 2015 Google overtakes Apple as world's most valuable listed company Google has become the world's most valuable listed company af- ter announcing that its global rev- enues rose 13% to $75billion last year, and the group's tax rate fell to just 17%. The group took a record $1.9bn of revenues from its UK customers for the last three months of 2015, up 16% on 2014 – and all routed through its controversial tax structure in Ireland. But for the impact of the pound weakening against the dollar, UK revenues would have been up 20%. Adding to the £3.7bn in British sales completed earlier in the year, Google's fourth-quarter revenues from the UK, took 2015 turnover from British advertisers to £5bn. In after-hours trading, the share price for Alphabet, Google's parent company, immediately jumped 9%, implying a total stock market value for Alphabet of $568bn. That meant it eclipsed rival Californian tech firm Apple, which has a value of $535bn, making Alphabet the most valuable company in the world. Key to Google's low tax rate is the controversial and complex arrangements it uses to shift non- US income from the UK and elsewhere to Bermuda, using aggressive tax strategies known as the double Irish and the Dutch sandwich. Much of Google income from the UK arrives in Ireland and is then squeezed through another Google company in the Netherlands before bouncing back to Ireland and Bermuda, a UK overseas territory and tax haven. Whatsapp, Gmail hit one billion monthly active users Facebook's WhatsApp messen- ger and Google's Gmail have both crossed the 1 billion monthly active user milestone, meaning that one- seventh of the world's population now uses them both. The two apps join Facebook's 1.59 billion monthly active users (MAU), as well as Google's other 1 billion or more MAU services: Google search, Chrome (both mobile and desktop), Google Maps, YouTube, Google's Android and therefore also Google Play. For Facebook, which has 1.44 billion mobile monthly users of its main social networking app, the purchase of WhatsApp was predicated on a belief that the app was on track to be used by 1 billion people globally – an elite club of very few apps and services. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook said at the time of the purchase: "WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable." WhatsApp is used in both the developed and developing world, available across almost every platform and comes pre-installed on many feature phones used across the developing world, where smartphone penetration is still low. Google's Gmail, however, is a more resource-intensive application than WhatsApp despite having low-bandwidth versions of its webmail service. But the Gmail Android app crossed the billion installs mark in May 2014, becoming the first one to hit that milestone, with Facebook behind. According to Google, there are 1.4 billion active Android users per month, but that does not include all the devices that do not use Google's version of Android, of which China and its 900 million-plus smartphone users make up a large proportion.