Quantitative Easing has just turned one year old. Just over a month ago, given the slowdown in the Eurozone economy and the prevailing deflation, Mario Draghi decided to boost it, increasing the purchase of government bonds from 60 to 80 billion euros, launching new measures for banks and extending the Eurotower's “shopping” to Corporate Bonds.
According to experts from Bloomberg and Reuters, the purchases of corporate bonds by the European Central Bank began this morning, meeting the needs of a number of companies, primarily those active in the utility sector. An important example is the French energy group Engie, which could "sell" bonds to the ECB for 3 million euros. In Spain, according to rumors, the purchases should reward ten-year telephone bonds, while the newspapers are also talking about the shares of Renault and Siemens.
As for Italy, Frankfurt should focus on Generali's corporate bonds. The Italian insurance securities that can be purchased under the program would be the two Generali seniors with maturities of January 2020 and September 2024. "At the moment we only have this request from Bank of Italy, but we are only at the beginning," an operator told Reuters.
On Piazza Affari, the Generali stock seems to benefit from the rumors circulating on the market. The company's stock, less than an hour after the closing, gained 1,18% to 12,86 euros, in contrast with the performance of the Ftse Mib, which lost 0,75%. The positive indications from a UBS report also pushed the stock, whose analysts improved their opinion on the stock from "neutral" to "buy", with a target price rising from 13,6 to 14,5 euros. According to the Swiss bank, after the losses at the beginning of the year, the worst is now behind us.
