A perfect storm hits Piazza Affari which is sinking, in a rough sea for all European stock exchanges and for Wall Street. Milan closes with a loss of 2,29% and falls to 23.237 points, overwhelmed by the sales on financial stocks. Only two shares are up on the main list: Leonardo (+1,91%), thanks to indications of a 2019 above targets and Atlantia (+2,02%), with recurring rumors of an open dialogue with the government on concessions. Red dominates in Frankfurt -1,34%; Paris -1,11%; Madrid -1,14%; London -1,32%, just a few hours after Brexit.
However, the star of Aston Martin shines brightly in the City (+23,8%) with the entry of Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll into the capital. Volatility is on the scene in New York, where stocks are accelerating downwards and registering losses exceeding one percentage point, in the wake of the china coronavirus news flow and the partially disappointing macro data. Amazon (+8,6%) is not enough to reinvigorate the appetite for risk.
Piazza Affari pays the highest price for uncertainty, also because the GDP of the fourth quarter of 2019 was negative (-0,3% month on month and flat year on year) to a greater extent than expected. This is the worst cyclical decline since the first quarter of 2013. Also not helping are the news of two Chinese tourists in Italy who tested positive for the viral test, the state of emergency declared by the government for six months and the blocking of flights to and from China.
The health problem and the necessary countermeasures scare the markets, because they are an undoubted stick in the wheels of growth, especially in a country that is already slowing down and may be particularly vulnerable to shocks, as written by the International Monetary Fund. Also next week the big ball of the quarterly of the banks starts (nine) and the dances will be opened on February 4 by Intesa. Mediobanca Securities expects accounts to fall due to the combined effect of negative rates, which will remain negative for a long time to come, and a difficult Italian macro scenario.
A Goldman Sachs report released yesterday, after the close, in any case indicates "buy" on Unicredit, Banco Bpm and Ubi, after a downward revision of loan growth rate estimates and an upward revision of fee income forecasts, thanks to an expected increase in assets under management.
In this context investors however, they prefer to go to collection before the weekend, so Banco Bpm loses 5,03%; Bper -4,07%; Ubi -3,32%; Unicredit -2,44%; Understanding -2,01%. Poste Italiane -4,08% and Finecobank -3,69% fell in asset management. The performance is heavy also for Stm -4,42%; Exor -4,09%; Telecom -3,68%; Pirelli -3,62%; Saipem -3,4%.
Defensive stocks such as utilities lose. The focus is on Hera (-3,25%) and A2a (-1,5%), as both are pressing on the north-east. Two operationssame prey: first the Bologna utility announced that it had acquired 2,5% of the capital of Treviso-based Ascopiave; shortly after, A2A also announced that it had bought 4,16% of the Triveneto gas distributor, effectively becoming its first shareholder. In both cases, the private equity fund Amber sold.
According to market sources, Hera bought the stake yesterday at a price of around 3,98 euros, while A2a bought this morning at 4,30 euros. Outside the main price list, Ascopiave thus closes with an increase of 8,87%. Among the mid caps, Tod's recovers (+2,47%), after better-than-expected results; Kepler raised the target to 32 euros. Anima slips -6,26%, after the relegation to "neutral" by Ubs and target price at 4,85 euros.
