The Malta Stock Exchange's rebound over the last week ended today as the index fell by one per cent.

The index had previously rallied by six per cent since last Wednesday on the back of restored investor confidence following the news of the milestone reached by the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership in the development of a vaccine to the COVID-19 disease.

The partners announced on Monday that their COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90 per cent effective in preventing the virus among those without evidence of prior infection.

Pfizer is the first of six leading pharmaceutical companies currently developing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

The MSE index had closed 1.6 per cent higher on Monday and 3.2 per cent higher on Tuesday. Wednesday’s gains were much slimmer, at 0.3 per cent.

Wednesday’s slowdown presaged the drop on Thursday, as investor sought to act with caution.

Monday’s and Tuesday’s climb was largely led by MIA, which saw its share price increase by 16.9 per cent.

The impact of MIA’s share price on the total stock market is clear when seeing Wednesday’s and Thursday’s trading results.

MIA saw no change in price on Wednesday, with the index as a whole registering only a 0.3 per cent increase.

On Thursday it registered a 6.5 per cent drop, with the index also registering a decrease.

Other key stocks registering increases this week include BOV and HSBC, although, in line with the general index, both recoveries slowed and faltered by mid-week.