The bulletin for the day, for now, is summarized as follows: Piazza Affari remains in heavy decline, -4,22%, and the Ftse/Mib index at 15. These are the declines in the other European stock exchanges: London -662%, Paris -1,23%, Frankfurt -2%, Madrid -1,72%. holds the euro, which wiped out this morning's initial losses: against the dollar, the single currency rose to 1,31, from 1,306 at yesterday evening's close; against the Swiss franc it is unchanged at 1,216, against the pound sterling it is even up to 0,8631, from 0,8614 at yesterday's close.
Rates up, but auction fully covered for the six-monthly Bots offered today by the Treasury. The Bonds were placed with a weighted average yield of 1,237%, an increase of 0,51 points compared to the January auction and the highest since last October 2012. Demand stood at 12,595 billion, with a demand/ offer equal to 1,44, down compared to the 1,65 of the placement of the previous month. The short-term maturity (covered by the ECB parachute) and the maturity of 6-month BOTs for 10 billion contributed to favoring the stability of the issue. The real trial by fire is expected tomorrow, with the issues of 5-year and 10-year BTPs.
Outgoing premier Mario Monti has called a meeting with ministers Grilli and Moavero and with the governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco for 12 noon. Meanwhile, Consob does not rule out moves to curb sales in Piazza Affari. The Btp/Bund spread it started at +50 basis points at 341, now it fluctuates at +333 at red alert levels for the next auctions. Inevitably, the other peripheral countries also suffer but much less than us, a sign that liquidity could move rapidly from Italy to other peripheral countries: the Italy/Spain spread, for example, has collapsed to 48 bp, the lowest since the beginning of September.
Banks down in Piazza Affari and in the rest of Europe. On the Stock Exchange, sales hit financial stocks above all: in Europe, the Stoxx index of banks lost 2,3%, insurance companies -1,6%. In Milan Unicredit sinks in a drop of 7,5%, Intesa -8,5%, Mediobanca -6%, Pop.Milano -5%, MontePaschi -5,6%, Banco Popolare -7,3%. Among the European banks, Société Générale loses 4,5%, Bnp Paribas -3,8%, Deutsche Bank -4,4%, the Spanish BBVA drops by 3,6%.
Among the insurance companies, Generali drops by 5,2%, Unipol falls by 8,2%, Fondiaria-Sai -6,6%. Heavy asset management Azimut -4%, Mediolanum -7,2%, Banca Generali -3,6%. Industrial stocks also fell, Fiat lost 3,2%, Finmeccanica -3,5%, Fiat Industrial -2,7%, Stm -2,2%. Defeat for Enel, – 4,2%, Eni loses 1,8%. Telecom Italia marks a drop of 4,3%.
