After four days of bullishness, the stock markets are slowing down, lacking the support of Wall Street, closed for Independence Day. Italian banks are trembling, hit yesterday morning by the publication of the letter from the ECB addressed to Siena on 22 June, on the eve of the vote on the Brexit: "Monte dei Paschi will present a three-year plan as soon as possible to bring the percentage of the bank's non-performing loans back to a physiological level". It is confirmation that the road to an agreement between the European Union and the Italian government on the country's banks is even steeper than an Alpine climb in the Tour de France. Hence the new setback of Italian banks, down by 60% since the beginning of the year.
MILAN BLACK JERSEY, THE CHINESE ECONOMY STARTS AGAIN
Contrasted sitting in Asia. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is starting to close down by 0,8%, with the yen appreciating against the dollar. Hong Kong is down 0,7% while Shanghai is up 0,4%. Seoul -0,3% and Mumbai -0,2%.
Sydney Stock Exchange is down 0,9% on the day the Bank of Australia confirmed its previous level of interest rates. Fears of political chaos after the elections push the yield on ten-year bonds down to values never seen in history: 1,92%, seven basis points less than yesterday.
Good news coming from the Chinese economy: the PMI services index records the best growth for a year. The analogous Japanese data loses its hits. Expect a downward opening for the European stock exchanges. Once again yesterday the black jersey fell in Piazza Affari: the Ftse Mib index closed with a loss of 1,74% at 16.012 points.
All the European Stock Exchanges are negative: Paris loses 0,91%, Frankfurt -0,69%, Madrid -0,16%. The global European Stoxx 600 index closed down 0,7%, the first decline after four consecutive days of gains: in this space of time, it gained 7,6%. In the two days following the outcome of the Referendum in Great Britain, the index lost 11%.
London also fell back (-0,9%), while the pound, interrupting its long descent, appreciated to 1,333 against the dollar from 1,326. From the United Kingdom came another unexpected political news: Nigel Farage has announced his resignation from the post of secretary of UKIP, the party that led the campaign for leaving the European Union.
RAW MATERIALS WELL, SAIPEM (+3,4%) BEST TITLE
Not just discounts. The rise in raw material prices continued (+1,7% for the Stoxx index), close to the highest since October. Oil was weak this morning: Brent at 49.68 dollars a barrel (-0,8%), Wti at 48,33. US crude reserves have surpassed those of Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Among the oil products, the performance of Saipem stands out, which closed against the trend with a rise of 3,4% to 0,3827 euro, the best blue chip of the day. The leading oil industry services company has won $1,2 billion in Indonesian contracts for BP's expansion of its Tangguh LNG plant.
NEW ECONOMY, NOW THE TOP OF THE BIG. BIG DEALS AHEAD
Spotlight turned on today in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the annual meeting of the greats of the technology sector, from Tim Cook (Apple) to Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). After the purchase of Linkedin by Microsoft (26 billion) the market is betting on new coups to come. Meanwhile, the IPO front is heating up. In June, the shares of Twilio (+90% on the day of its debut), a company specializing in Internet communications, were snapped up. A similar success should reward the offer of Line, an online messaging service this week.
GOLDMAN SACHS MAKES ECONOMY AND CUTS TRAVEL
Bad times for bankers at all latitudes. Yesterday Goldman Sachs informed the managers of the asset management division that from now on travel of the 2 employees will be prohibited, unless they are explicitly motivated by visiting clients or looking for new business. The news is very little consolation for the employees of Monte Paschi, where they now live in a state of siege.
MPS -14%: THE THIRD ITALIAN BANK IS WORTH LESS THAN 1 A BILLION
The bank of Rocca Salimbeni closed yet another nightmare day. The stock fell by 14% to 0,33 euros, after several downward suspensions. Capitalization slipped below one billion euro (964,65 million). A collapse triggered by the request, albeit not a very new one, from the ECB which asks to dispose of at least ten billion euros of gross non-performing loans, of the more than 27 billion which have been holding back its recovery for years. The objectives are higher than those of the MPS strategic plan of a year ago, which envisaged the sale of 2018 billion bad loans by 5,5 and the internal recovery of another 6 billion.
An article in the Financial Times contributed to warming the atmosphere in which he argued that Matteo Renzi was ready to challenge the Commission in the event of a veto to support Italian banks even beyond the rules. The Palazzo Chigi's denial was flat, while Ignazio Angeloni (ECB) opened up to government intervention as long as public aid is "used in moderation".
UNICREDIT ALSO SLIDES TO HISTORIC LOWS
No Italian bank escaped the sell-off yesterday. Unicredit, at historic lows, lost 3,6%. Due to fears of a capital increase, the stock has accumulated a loss of 63% since the beginning of 2016. Banco Popolare -4,6% to 2,08 euro, a lower price than the new shares issued in the recent capital increase (2,14 euro) fully subscribed for a total value of 996.343.990 euro. The guarantee consortium made up of Mediobanca and Bofa Merrill Lynch subscribed the remaining 2 million shares for a value of around 4,3 million. B. Pop. Milan (-1,4%) reversed the trend towards the end.
Also in deep red were Carige -7.84%, Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna -6,7%, Ubi Banca -3%, Mediobanca -4,2%. The rest of the financial sector did not report better results. Among the declining insurance companies, Generali -2,8%. Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone has purchased Generali shares for a total value of 1,8 million euro. Cattolica -3%, UnipolSai -2,7%. Asset management was also in deep red: Azimut -3%, FinecoBank -3,7%, Banca Generali -3,5%, Banca Mediolanum -3,7%.
FIAT CHRYSLER: SALES GOOD, BAD ON THE STOCK
Among industrialists, Fiat Chrysler fell sharply (-4,5%) despite the good sales results on the German market (+12,7% in June to 8.435 units, with a market share of 2,5%) confirming that the campaign launched by Bild and other press organs on alleged violations of emissions rules (denials) did no harm. Jeep also performed well (+26,6% to 1.684 with a share of 0,5%) and above all Alfa Romeo (+118,5% to 507 with a share of 0,1%).
Kepler Cheuvreux who reduced the target price on the stock from 7,5 to 6,2 euros. Experts lowered estimates and auto companies' targets to reflect the weakness of the British currency against the euro, lower volume estimates in Europe for 2017-2018 and a higher cost of equity due to rising political risk.
Prysmian-3,5%. Good performances by Leonardo (+0,55%) and, above all, by Fincantieri (+3,25), rewarded by the news of the establishment of a joint venture with China State Shipbuilding, the largest shipbuilding conglomerate in China, aimed at developing and growth of the Chinese cruise industry.
BREXIT EFFECT ON MEDIASET, RCS TOWARDS THE FINAL DUEL
Mediaset also paid a heavy tribute to Brexit (-4,6%). Barclays has revised the target price (3,4 euro against 4,1) and updated the estimates on the European media sector after the outcome of the British referendum in the light of exchange rate movements and the drop in macroeconomic forecasts, bringing the target price from 4,1 .3,4 to 9,15 euros. Excellent performance instead for Mondadori (+XNUMX%): the decision on the buyer of Bompiani is near.
The Rcs race continues (+2,93%) in view of the final duel next Friday when, as required by law, the consortium Bonomi and Cairo Communicaions will compete with two bids in the dark.
ITALMOBILIARE COLLECTS THE MONEY FROM HEIDELBERG
Also noteworthy are the purchases of Leonardo del Vecchio on Luxottica (-2%): Delfin, the entrepreneur's holding company, bought 29 shares between 30 and 850.000 June, equal to 0,18% of the capital, for around 38 million of Euro. Italmobiliare leap (+9,9%) after the conclusion of the sale of Italcementi to the German Heidelberg.
