Only three titles in red. And widespread increases on the entire basket of blue chips in Milan. This is the balance sheet for the FtseMib in March, the month that closes a record quarter with the index flying, archiving one of the best periods for several years. In the three months between January and March, thanks to the Qe of the ECB, the gain in the index in fact stood at 22%. The performance in March, the period of publication of the annual accounts, was affected on the one hand by the results on the business trend in 2014 but on the other by the announcements of extraordinary transactions involving some stocks. Starting with the Yoox case.
The e-commerce company outpaces all other stocks and closed the month with a rise of 32,23% in the wake of the merger agreement with the luxury e-commerce giant Net-A-Porter, a subsidiary of the Richement group. The transaction gives rise to a group with a turnover of 1,3 billion euros which will continue to be listed in Milan and will maintain its headquarters in Italy. To maintain the independence of the company, the voting rights exercisable by Richemont have been limited to 25% and no more than two members out of 12 may be appointed to the board.
Second best stock in the basket, albeit at a safe distance, is Moncler which rises by 16,48%. At the beginning of the month, the colored duvet company announced its 2014 accounts which closed with a jump in profits and surprised analysts, thus apparently leaving behind the controversies related to the "geese plucking" case launched by the program reports. In detail, profits rose to 130,3 million from 76,1 in 2013 and net financial debt fell to 111,2 million compared to 171,1 in 2013.
The other luxury stocks are more distant: Ferragamo rises by 9,94%, Luxottica by 7,41% and Tod's by 7,24%. Among the best performances also Pirelli boosted by the agreement with ChemChina. The Chinese group, through the new Bidco company also owned by the Italian shareholders of Camfin, will launch a takeover bid on the group for 15 euros after the detachment of the dividend. The offer is also aimed at savings shares, again at 15 euros, on condition that at least 30% of the share capital of the category participates.
The banks are distributed throughout the ranking, however placing themselves more in the upper part with earnings generally above 4%: the best is Bpm +12,72%, followed by Bper +10,74% and Mediolanum +10,53% . Mediobanca rises by 8,61%, while the four largest Italian banks close the sector ranking: Unicredit +7%, Intesa Sanpaolo +6,3%, Banco Popolare +5,8% and Ubi Banca +4,55% . Case apart for Mps which remains at the bottom while managing to snatch the plus sign at +0,82%. Among the financials of the Ftse Mib, the only stock slipping below parity is Generali with a drop of 0,48%.
If gains are spread, only nine stocks perform above 10%. The majority of stocks, twenty-eight out of forty, stop in the single digits. Among these, the best is FCA +9,97% which benefits from the recovery of car sales in Europe and also in Italy but also on the wave of the hypotheses put forward by CEO Sergio Marchionne on possible new alliances with GM or Ford and the listing by Ferrari. Gtech closes its last month of listing on the Piazza Affari with a +0,51%. The former Lottomatica group has merged with Igt, International Game Technology, from which it will take its name and is heading towards its debut on Wall Street, scheduled for April 7 on the NYSE. Moderate results for energy-related stocks: A2A +6,95%, Saipem +3,59%, Enel +2,81%, Terna +2,01%, Snam +0,4%. Instead, Eni -2,79% and Enel Green Power -8,6% end up in the red, the worst stock of the month.
