BTP, AUCTION OK BUT RATES AT THE HIGHEST FOR 14 YEARS. BUSINESS PLACE REMAINS WEAK: -0,44%
Despite the positive (not obvious) outcome of the offer of public debt securities, the Milan Stock Exchange is traveling in negative territory: the Ftse Mib index is down by 0,44% at 14.786. London -0,6% and Frankfurt -0,5% are also in negative territory.
Italy sold 5-year BTPs at auction today for 3 billion euro placing them at a rate of 6,47%. This is the highest yield since May 1997 but the Treasury has decided to fully accept the requests equal to 1,42 times the offer (against 1,47 in the November auction).
The 10-year BTP yield rose by 4 basis points to 6,69% and the 5-year yield by 8 basis points to 6,77%. The differential between the 10-year Italian bond and the German Bund is 466.7 basis points: this morning the benchmarks for the government bonds of Italy and Germany changed.
The euro moves little at 1,302 against the dollar, the lowest since January and Wti-type oil is also almost flat at 99,8 dollars a barrel (-0,3%). Gold recovers positions after two consecutive days of very strong falls: the reference future rises by 0,2% to 1636 dollars an ounce.
The banks are advancing in Piazza Affari, especially Intesa Sanpaolo is running +1,41% after the promotion to buy of Goldman Sachs. Unicredit is up 0,76%%. Unicredit rises by 0,8% to 0,731 euros. The stock is up despite Goldman Sachs cutting the target price on the Piazza Cordusio share to 1,1 euro from 1,2 euro while maintaining the "neutral" rating.
The Financial Times anticipates that the institute's capital increase could start on 9 January. The participation of some shareholders such as the Foundations and Allianz seems obvious. The position of the Libyans (7,6%) is still uncertain, while new foreign shareholders will probably enter: there is talk of Chinese investors and a Qatari sovereign wealth fund. Tomorrow the extraordinary meeting will kick off the process. Meanwhile, the bank is about to sell the Russian assets of the subsidiary Pioneer Investments, according to some rumors, it could be bought by BNY Mellon. Analysts raised the Mps target price to 0,35 euro (from 0,45 euro), +1,60%.
Banca Popolare di Milano (+4%): the offer of the unexercised rights of the capital increase of 800 million euro continues on the Stock Exchange, equal to 18,3% of the offer or 146,3 million. Meanwhile, Banca Popolare di Milano is proceeding with the collection of proxies for the meeting of the 2009-2013 bond with mandatory conversion, at 6,75%, which will be held on 22 December in first call. Among the changes proposed to the regulation of the bond (for 406 million euros) is the anticipation of the conversion to 2011 and the reduction of the strike (conversion price) from 6 euros to 2,71 euros. However, it is not certain that it will be possible to collect a sufficient number of proxies to approve changes to the bond regulation which, while improving the conditions for bondholders, will suffer a heavy loss (the conversion price is about ten times the stock market value of the bond).
Mediobanca - 0,18%: this morning the institute announced the launch of a 500 million zero coupon expiring in 2017. Double rejection for Italian insurance companies: yesterday evening Fitch announced that it had revised Generali's rating downwards - 1,44, 0.93% and Fondiaria Sai -14,2%, this morning Barclays cuts the target price of the Lion of Trieste to 15,10 euros from 0,97 euros and brings the target price of the company controlled by the Ligresti family to 2 euros from the previous XNUMX euros.
Eni (-0,89%). The company has closed a dispute with Kazakhstan regarding the Karachaganak oil and gas field, the agreements provide that KazMunaiGaz (KMG), the Kazakh state company, will purchase 10% of the shares in the development project with an outlay of one billion dollars. The stake will be sold pro rata by the consortium companies which are, in addition to Eni and BG, which each have 32,5%, also Chevron with 20% and Lukoil with 15%.
Fiat - 1,86% and Fiat Industrial -1,35% were also weak on the Panda paint day.
