Turbulent awakening on stock markets following the results of the ECB exam. The sales affect the entire banking sector, even the institutes that have been promoted by the Eurotower tests which, after an upward start, have taken the downward path with bursts of suspensions. According to operators, the initial purchases were above all countermeasures after the hedging decided over the weekend to ward off possible negative surprises from the stress tests. After the coverings, there were no support purchases.
It is vertical collapse with suspensions for Banca Carige -15% and Mps -20%. Not even the ban on short selling decided by Consob for today and tomorrow has managed to stop the fall of the Sienese stock which is paying for the uncertainty for the future. The top management has already given a mandate to Ubs and Citigroup to study all the strategic options available, including a possible merger. In Siena, there was a lot of discontent about the way the EBA stress tests were conducted. Bad moods also came from Bank of Italy which wanted to put the dots on the i's on the solidity of the banking system and on the positive outcome (better than expected) of the asset quality review (which tested the current state of health of the banks, i.e. how they evaluate today balance sheet assets).
At the basis of these discontent results that have put Italian banks at the center (in negative) of yesterday's and today's news while they saved the other countries that seemed more virtuous. In the background, however, there are stress tests built on extremely penalizing scenarios for the country, foreign banks that have received rivers of public capital to strengthen capital ratios and doubts about the real depth of the ECB's investigation, with German banks remaining out of the analysis and derivatives rife in Berlin's banking system still being swept under the rug.
Added to this is the economic scenario. Today the Ifo index was again lower than expected, falling in October to 103,2 from 104,7 (expected for 104,5) and marking the sixth consecutive drop. And a flutter in core Germany turns into a storm on the periphery of the Empire, in Italy. The Ftse Mib drops 2,29%, the worst European index. Madrid -1,1%. Fractional declines for Paris -0,42%, Frankfurt -0,47% and London absorbing losses and moving in the slight red at -0,07%.
At the bottom of the Ftse Mib: Mps - 20%, Bpm 5,7%, Ubi -4,6%, penalized by possible scenarios that see it as an aggregating pole. Intesa and Unicredit sell more than 2%. In addition to the banks, sales hit Mediaset -4,37%, Wdf -3,5%.
The Btp-bund spread rises to 164 points and the differential between Italy and Spain widens by 36 basis points, a level not seen since February 2012. Against the trend among the best of the Ftse Mib A2A +1,92%, Atlantia + 0,56%, Prysmian +0,45%.
Today the Treasury published the response letter to Brussels on the Stability Law indicating to the European Union the additional measures with which Italy plans to correct the structural deficit by about 0,3 percentage points of GDP during 2015.
Now the market is looking at the US data expected in the afternoon, the PMI index of the services sector and the pending home sales.
